lllili 

I    I  I  Ly 

oi  ^lliipHiliiiiiliilil 

SGOTl  JOB  GASSELLS 


Barbaras 


Alexander 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 


SCOUT  JOE   CASSELLS 
OF  THE  BLACK  WATCH 


A  RECORD  IN  ACTION 

BY 

SCOUT  JOE  CASSELLS 

One  of  the  few  survivors  of  that 
"contemptible  little  army" 


Frontispiece 


GARDEN  CITY  NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

1918 


Copyright,  1918,  by 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

All  rights  reserved,  including  that  of 

translation  into  foreign  languages, 

including  the  Scandinavian 


FOREWORD 

From  Mons  to  the  Marne  lies  the  bloodiest 
trail  of  sacrifice  in  history.  In  all  the  rec- 
ords of  war,  there  stands  forth  no  more  mag- 
nificent and  no  more  melancholy  achievement 
than  that  of  the  British  regular  army,  which 
bled  its  heroic  way  in  ever-diminishing  num- 
bers from  the  challenge  to  the  check  of  the 
initial  German  sweep  upon  Paris.  It  could 
not  hope  for  decisive  victory;  it  could  only 
clog  the  wheels  of  the  Juggernaut  with  lives 
and  lives  and  lives,  sold  bravely  and  dearly. 
Before  a  countless  superiority  of  numbers  and 
an  incalculable  advantage  in  enemy  prepared- 
ness, it  could  only  stand,  and  fall — and  stand 
again,  and  fall — until  the  end;  when  the  cause 
of  the  Allies  was  saved  for  the  hour,  and  of 
French's  hundred  thousand  there  remained 
barely  a  little  leaven  of  trained  men  for  the 
British  forces  then  assembling  to  learn  the 
trade  of  warfare. 


2135231 


The  ablest  pens  writing  of  the  Great  War 
have  paid  tribute  to  this  splendid  deed  which 
changed  the  course  of  its  beginning.  French's 
retreat  from  Mons  has  been  a  topic  to  inspire 
the  highest  eloquence  of  the  patriotic  historian 
and  the  most  profound  admiration  of  the 
militarist.  Everything,  from  the  point  of  the 
onlooker,  has  been  said  of  it.  And  everything 
that  has  been  said  retires  into  the  perspective 
of  the  academic,  when  one  reads,  in  this  vol- 
ume, the  words  of  a  trained  British  soldier 
who  experienced  and  survived  it.  For  stark 
and  simple  strength,  for  realism  of  detail,  for 
a  complete  picturization  of  the  desperate  and 
heroic  resistance  of  the  sacrificial  army,  this 
soldier's  tale  is,  and  will  remain,  unequalled 
and  unique.  This  prefatory  emphasis  is  not 
vain  or  extravagant.  It  need  not  fear  the 
fact  that  there  is  but  the  turning  of  a  page 
between  promise  and  performance.  Here  is  a 
writing  which  is  of  the  war,  and  therefore 
differs  from  all  writings  which  can  only  be 
about  the  war.  It  conveys  to  the  reader  an 
almost  paralyzing  sense  of  wonder  at  the 
steadfastness  of  Britain's  military  traditions, 

vi 


FOREWORD 

put  to  an  unexampled  test.  It  shows  how  mar- 
vellously well  a  soldier  may  learn  his  business 
in  advance — when  his  business  is  to  die.  Con- 
cerning one  of  the  most  noteworthy  accom- 
plishments of  the  arms  of  Britain,  there  \vill 
survive  in  print  no  more  compelling  and  con- 
vincing narrative  than  this,  the  utterance  of 
one  whose  trade  was  fighting  and  not  writing. 


Vll 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

CHAPTER  ONE 

FOR  more  than  two  years  now,  I  have 
been  trying  to  forget  those  first  months 
of  the  war.  The  months  when  the  Black 
Watch  and  other  regiments  of  the  immortal 
"contemptible  little  army"  marched  into  the 
unknown  against  the  fiercest,  most  efficient 
military  power  the  world,  up  to  that  time, 
had  known;  the  months  when  hidden  enemies 
struck  swiftly  mystifying  blows  with  strange 
weapons,  the  more  terrible  because  we  did 
not  understand  them  and  had  never  imagined 
their  power  and  numbers. 

For  more  than  two  years  I  have  habitually 
sought  to  keep  my  mind  upon  other  subjects, 
yet  I  can  recall  those  days  now  in  the  minutest 
detail.  I  can  hear  the  sudden  thrum  of  the 
masked  machine  guns  like  giant  partridges 
drumming;  can  hear  the  singing  roar  of  the 
Prussian  airplanes  to  which,  in  those  days, 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

because  of  the  scarcity  of  British  planes,  there 
could  be  practically  no  answer;  and  I  can  live 
again  the  frightful  nights  when  we  made  our 
stand  upon  the  Marne,  and,  sneaking  into 
German  outpost  trenches,  slew  the  guards 
with  jack-knives,  thrusting  gags  into  their 
mouths  and  cutting  their  throats  to  prevent 
outcry. 

Those  were  the  days  of  picturesque  and 
shifty  fighting.  There  was  movement,  the 
rush  of  cannon  from  the  rear,  the  charges  of 
cavalry,  the  perils  of  scouting  and  patrolling. 
It  was  little  like  the  slow  trench  warfare  which 
followed. 

The  Black  Watch — the  regiment  to  which 
I  belong — was  one  of  the  first  to  cross  the 
Channel.  War  was  declared  August  4th, 
which  was  Tuesday.  The  first-class  reservists, 
of  which  I  was  one,  received  their  mobiliza- 
tion orders  the  next  day. 

We  assembled  at  Queens  Barracks,  Perth, 
the  historic  headquarters  of  what  we  proudly 
maintain  is  the  world's  most  famous  fighting 
organization.  Twice  before,  since  1742,  the 
Black  Watch  had  outfitted  in  Perth  to  fight  in 
Flanders.  Almost  constantly  since  that  date, 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

battalions  of  the  regiment  have  been  fighting 
for  Britain  in  some  far-off  quarter  of  the  globe. 
For  the  third  adventure  in  Flanders,  which 
was  to  see  the  existing  personnel  of  the  regi- 
ment practically  wiped  out  in  an  imperatively 
necessary  campaign  of  blood  sacrifice,  our 
preparations  were  brisk  and  businesslike. 
Within  three  hours  of  my  arrival  at  the  depot 
at  Perth.  I  was  one  of  a  thousand  men,  uni- 
formed, armed,  and  fully  equipped,  who  en- 
trained for  Aldershot  to  join  our  first  battalion 
stationed  there. 

On  the  thirteenth  of  August,  after  a  week's 
stiff  training,  we  boarded  the  steamship 
Italian  Prince  and  the  next  day  disembarked 
at  Havre. 

What  awaited  us  there  was  much  like  the 
reception  later  given  to  the  first  American 
troops  to  land  in  France.  What  followed  was 
quite  different.  The  American  troops,  and 
millions  of  their  friends  and  relatives,  are  all 
wondering  what  awaits  them — what  war  really 
will  be  like — what  they  will  have  to  do  and 
the  conditions  under  which  they  will  do  it. 

It  is  an  axiom  of  war  that  the  first  troops 
almost  invariably  suffer  the  greatest  losses. 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

The  first  American  units  to  go  into  the  trenches 
have  suffered  a  low  average  of  casualties.  In 
one  respect  they  are  far  better  off  than  were 
the  first  British  and  French  troops  to  meet 
the  Germans.  They  know  what  they  are 
going  up  against.  Modern  warfare  is  a  de- 
termined quantity.  They  know  the  methods 
of  the  men  they  will  fight  against  and  they 
have  allies  able  to  instruct  them  in  the  art 
of  fighting  as  it  is  practised  to-day. 

We  had  nothing  like  that.  It  was  as  though 
we  were  groping  in  the  dark  while  an  unseen 
foe  was  striking  at  us.  For  days  we  tramped 
through  France  and  Belgium  hearing  the 
roar  of  the  German  guns,  feeling  the  sting 
of  the  shrapnel,  but  not  seeing  our  foes. 
Then  came  the  shifty,  open  fighting,  now  al- 
most forgotten,  which  will  not  be  resumed 
until  the  Germans  are  on  the  run.  WTien  it 
comes  it  will  be  a  welcome  relief  to  the  men 
who  have  been  battling,  like  rats,  in  trenches 
not  fit  for  human  beings  to  inhabit. 

Well,  to  get  back  to  what  happened  to  us, 
the  first  "contemptible  little  army,"  in  France 
and  Flanders. 

The  19th  of  August  found  us  billeted  in  a 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

town  called  Boue.  We  had  to  remain  here  a 
few  days  because  the  roads  were  blocked  with 
transports  going  toward  the  front.  The  entire 
regiment  was  allowed  to  go  swimming  in  a 
near-by  canal  and,  as  my  chum  and  I  were 
dressing,  an  old  Frenchman  gave  us  each  a 
half-franc  piece,  saying  that  it  would  give  us 
good  luck  and  bring  us  through  alive.  It  was 
the  first  money  he  had  made  as  a  boy  and  he 
had  kept  it  ever  since.  The  last  I  heard  of 
my  chum  was  that  he  had  been  discharged 
from  active  service  because  of  wounds,  and 
so  it  would  appear  his  half -franc  piece  really 
did  bring  him  through,  just  as  mine  did  me. 
We  left  Boue  on  the  twenty-first  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  we  marched  until 
three  o'clock  the  next  morning.  All  the  time 
we  could  hear  the  muffled  booming  of  the  Ger- 
man heavy  artillery.  It  sounded  just  like  the 
noise  they  make  on  the  stage  when  a  battle 
is  supposed  to  be  in  progress  in  the  distance. 
It  excited  the  men  and  buoyed  them  up  won- 
derfully, but  twenty-four  hours  is  a  long  time 
to  march  without  sleep,  and  whenever  we 
halted  the  men  lay  down  in  the  mud  of  the 
road  and  lost  consciousness — but  not  for  long. 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Within  a  few  minutes  after  every  halt,  the 
officers  would  come  among  us  and  rouse  us, 
saying  that  we  were  badly  needed  up  where 
the  guns  were  growling.  It  was  hard,  tiring 
work,  but  it  wasn't  half  so  bad  as  what  we 
got  later,  when  we  were  retreating. 

We  didn't  know  it,  but  we  were  on  our  way 
to  Mons  to  hold  the  left  flank. 

It  was  during  a  short  halt  in  Grande  Range 
that  we  had  our  first  sight  of  a  German 
airplane.  We  were  billeted  in  the  houses  and 
stables  of  the  village,  and  every  one  came 
running  out  to  look  at  the  plane  \vhen  the 
thrumming  of  the  engine  was  heard.  WTien  it 
was  right  over  our  heads  it  let  fly  a  rack  full 
of  steel  darts  and  they  came  clattering  down 
into  the  village  streets.  One  stuck  into  the 
pavement  in  front  of  our  quarters.  It  was  so 
deeply  imbedded  that  not  a  man  in  the  com- 
pany could  pull  it  out.  [I  have  seen  one  of 
these  missiles  go  right  through  a  house  from 
roof  to  cellar.  They  have  been  known  to  go 
through  a  horse  and  then  bury  themselves 
in  the  ground.] 

These  steel  darts  were  from  eight  inches  to 
a  foot  long,  cut  so  that  they  would  fall  point 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

downward.  Dozens  of  them  were  contained 
in  a  single  rack,  which  the  aviator  released 
when  he  was  over  his  target;  the  speed  of  the 
machine  caused  them  to  scatter.  They  would 
go  through  anything  they  hit,  but  they  were 
found  to  be  too  inaccurate  and  not  so  eco- 
nomical as  explosives. 

After  the  plane  had  passed  we  were  rushed 
to  the  outskirts  of  the  village,  where  we  began 
to  entrench.  By  morning,  we  had  nearly 
finished  the  shallow  trenches  which,  in  that 
day,  were  regarded  as  sufficient  protection 
for  infantry  in  the  field.  At  daybreak  our 
High  Command  had  information  that  our 
position  along  the  highway  would  prove  un- 
tenable. Wearily  enough,  we  marched  to  a 
range  of  wooded  hills  where  we  again  en- 
trenched. German  heavy  shells  found  us 
there,  so  we  were  compelled  to  retire  to  an- 
other village,  near  which  we  entrenched  once 
more,  on  still  higher  ground.  The  German  air 
scouts  were  watching  us,  however,  and  in  this 
new  position  a  heavier  fire  from  long-range 
artillery  found  us. 

All  of  this  was  on  August  25th,  two  days 
after  our  forced  march  of  twenty-four  hours. 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

The  weather  was  extremely  hot  and  we  were 
well-nigh  exhausted  by  the  work  of  digging 
three  sets  of  trenches.  We  lay  and  "took" 
the  German  fire.  We  had  already  had  some 
casualties,  the  wooden  steeple  of  the  church 
in  the  village  on  our  right  was  hi  flames,  and 
several  houses  had  been  destroyed  by  the 
German  shelling — and  we  hadn't  yet  seen  a 
German,  except  the  airplane  scouts.  But  they 
were  not  long  coming  into  view. 

As  we  lay  in  our  shallow  trenches,  a  big 
shell  every  now  and  then  falling  amongst  us, 
another  regiment,  retreating  under  heavy  fire, 
broke  into  view  from  the  woods,  a  mile  or 
more  hi  front  of  our  line.  We  soon  made 
them  out — the  Scots  Guards,  hotly  pursued 
by  a  superior  force  of  Uhlans,  and,  as  the  Ger- 
man commander  fondly  believed,  near  cap- 
ture. We,  in  our  trenches,  were  in  a  fever 
to  get  our  fire  on  the  Germans  but  they  were 
so  close  upon  the  Guards  that  we  dared  not 
fire  a  shot.  The  Guards,  putting  up  a  stiff 
fight  directly  in  front  of  our  position,  checked 
the  Uhlans  sufficiently  to  enable  their  own  or- 
ganization to  continue  its  retreat,  swinging 
over  in  the  direction  of  our  left  flank.  This 

10 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

gave  us  our  chance  and  we  poured  a  hot  rifle 
and  machine-gun  fire  into  the  pursuing  force. 

We  were  in  action  against  the  Boches,  at 
last!  and,  furthermore,  we  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  seeing  that  our  fire  was  effective. 
The  Uhlans,  whose  attention  now  was  forc- 
ibly distracted  from  the  hard-pressed  Guards 
to  us,  immediately  advanced  in  our  direction, 
dismounting  at  1,200  yards  distance  and  re- 
turning our  fire.  Leaving  their  horses  behind 
a  ridge,  they  crept  up  on  us  to  within  500 
yards. 

At  this  point,  a  water  cart  belonging  to  the 
Guards,  which  had  been  hidden  in  a  thicket, 
popped  out,  and  was  being  driven  in  the  di- 
rection of  their  regiment.  A  party  of  about 
thirty  Uhlans  galloped  after  it.  We  turned 
some  of  our  fire  on  them.  I  think  they  were 
all  toppled  over,  horses  and  men  alike.  Then 
another  party  of  about  five  thousand  Uhlans 
made  toward  us  at  a  gallop  and  charged,  but 
there  were  few  of  them  that  got  to  within 
one  hundred  yards  of  our  single  shallow  trench. 
By  this  time  the  Scots  Guards  had  got  into 
position  and  opened  fire  on  the  Boche  cavalry. 

Three  times  the  Germans  tried  to  secure 
11 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

the  water  cart,  thinking  no  doubt  it  was  an 
ammunition  wagon.  When  the  cart  was  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  our  trench 
the  horses  were  shot  down  by  the  Uhlans. 
One  of  the  men  on  it  was  wounded  through  the 
arm,  and  the  other  coolly  filled  his  water 
bottle  and  bathed  his  comrade's  wound,  re- 
gardless of  the  Huns  \vho  were  still  peppering 
away.  We  shouted  to  the  two  boys  to  hurry 
and  come  into  safety.  The  wounded  one's 
answer  was: 

"Safety  be  damned!  Some  of  you  Jocks 
come  out  here  and  give  us  a  pull  with  the 
water  cart." 

Men  of  our  //  company,  nearest  to  the  cart, 
asked  permission  to  go  to  the  rescue.  Their 
officers  acquiesced  and  sixteen  of  them  rushed 
out,  cut  the  cart  loose  from  the  dead  horses, 
and  dragged  it  to  safety  behind  the  ridge 
which  we  were  holding.  Three  of  the  sixteen 
were  hit.  There  were  especial  reasons  for 
this  bit  of  valour.  Our  own  water  bottles 
were  empty,  our  water  cart  drained  dry,  and 
we  were  choking  with  thirst. 

It  was  now  the  time  of  the  Scots  Guards 
to  help  us.  They  kept  a  steady  fire  on  the 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Uhlans  while  we  retired  behind  the  ridge  to 
fall  in  on  the  main  road  to  Hautmont  and  re- 
treat to  the  next  spot  where  we  could  make  a 
temporary  stand.  While  we  were  falling 
back  to  the  main  road,  a  man  from  each  sec- 
tion filled  three  water  bottles  from  the  rescued 
cart.  We  didn't  know  when  we  would  get 
water  again,  nor  how  far  our  tired  feet  must 
carry  us.  In  this  exhausted  state  we  began 
the  furious  fatal  struggle  against  an  over- 
whelming and  irresistible  enemy  which  is 
known  in  history  as  the  Retreat  from  Mons. 
Of  that  fearful  time,  I  have  lost  track  of 
dates.  I  do  not  want  to  remember  them. 
All  I  recollect  is  that,  under  a  blazing  August 
sun — our  mouths  caked,  our  tongues  parched 
— day  after  day  we  dragged  ourselves  along, 
always  fighting  rear-guard  actions,  our  feet 
bleeding,  our  backs  breaking,  our  hearts  sore. 
Our  unmounted  officers  limped  amongst  us, 
blood  oozing  through  their  spats.  With  a 
semblance  of  cheeriness  they  told  us  that  we 
must  retreat  because  the  Russians  were  on 
their  way  to  Berlin  and  we  must  keep  the 
Germans  moving  in  the  opposite  direction. 
When  we  got  a  few  minutes'  respite  there 

13 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

would  be  an  issue  of  "gunfire" —the  tradi- 
tional British  army  term  for  tea  served  out 
to  men  in  action.  It  was  of  a  nondescript 
flavour,  commingling  the  negative  qualities  of 
"bully-beef  stew"  and  the  very  positive  taste 
of  kerosene  oil,  the  cooks'  hurricane  lamps 
being  stored  in  the  camp-kettles  during  each 
of  our  retirements.  Invariably — and  I  mean 
in  twenty  instances — the  shells  would  begin 
to  drop  amongst  us  before  we  could  finish 
our  portions,  eating,  though  we  did,  with 
ravenous  haste;  and  when  it  was  not  artillery 
fire  that  stopped  our  feeding  it  would  be  a 
charge  of  Uhlans,  compelling  us  to  drop  half- 
emptied  mess-tins  and  seize  rifles. 

We  had  no  artillery  to  speak  of,  and  very 
few  airplanes.  If  we  had  had  more  of  the 
latter,  there  might  have  been  another  story. 
The  Germans  seemed  to  know  every  move 
we  made,  but  we  were  blind.  We  dropped 
into  a  field  and  killed  a  bullock,  skinned  it 
and  were  cooking  it.  There  came  the  roar 
of  a  powerful  engine;  a  German  plane  circled 
over  us  and  went  sailing  back,  signalling  our 
position.  A  few  minutes  later  shrapnel  fell 
among  us  and  we  went  on,  some  of  the  men  in 

14 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

ambulances.  Those  that  were  killed  we  hur- 
riedly buried,  but  there  was  not  time  even  to 
put  improvised  wooden  crosses  at  their  heads. 

One  of  our  slightly  wounded,  in  the  broad 
accents  of  lowland  Scotch,  cursed  the  Germans 
— not  for  wounding  him,  but  for  knocking 
over  his  canteen  of  tea.  A  hail  of  flying 
shrapnel  struck  down  a  cook;  the  men  of  his 
section  cursed  in  chorus  for  the  misfortune 
which  meant  that  hunger  would  be  added 
to  their  other  miseries. 

Not  once  alone  did  we  spring  up  from  eating 
to  fight  the  Uhlans  with  rifle  fire  and  bayonet. 
It  happened  a  dozen  times.  Whenever  the 
Uhlans  came,  we  fought  them  off,  but  always 
we  had  to  retreat  in  the  end,  for  the  German 
reserves  were  numberless  while  ours  scarcely 
existed. 


15 


CHAPTER  TWO 

MOST  of  the  time  while  we  were  drag- 
ging our  exhausted,  diminishing 
numbers  ahead  of  the  German  wave 
of  shot  and  steel,  I  was  on  scout  duty.  For 
a  while,  I  was  "connecting  file"  between  the 
Black  Watch  and  the  Munster  Fusiliers  who 
were  in  rear  of  us  and  almost  constantly  in 
touch  with  the  enemy.  I  had  more  than 
one  narrow  escape  from  capture  or  death. 

On  one  occasion  the  regiment  had  been 
deployed  to  beat  off  a  flank  attack.  When 
we  resumed  the  march  I  was  sent  back  to 
get  hi  touch  with  the  Fusiliers.  My  orders 
were  to  go  to  the  rear  until  I  got  in  touch 
with  them.  I  was  proceeding  cautiously 
along  the  road  when  suddenly  around  a 
curve  something  appeared  before  me.  My 
rifle  was  at  my  shoulder  ready  to  fire.  Then 
I  recognized  what  had  been  a  uniform  of 
the  Fusiliers. 

Have  you  ever  read  Kipling's  "Man  Who 

16 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Came  Back"?'  If  you  have,  you  will  have  a 
better  idea  than  I  can  give  you  of  what  this 
human  being  looked  like.  His  face  was 
covered  with  blood.  One  arm  hung  limply. 
Just  as  he  made  toward  me,  he  fell  exhausted 
by  the  roadside,  like  a  dog  that  is  spent. 
Literally,  his  tongue  hung  from  his  mouth. 
His  shoes  were  cut  up  and  his  clothes  dangled 
in  ribbons  beneath  which  red  gashes  showed 
in; his  flesh  where  he  had  torn  it  in  the  barbed- 
wire  fences  he  had  encountered,  crossing  fields. 

I  asked  him  what  had  happened.  His  lips 
moved  and  his  breath  came  in  more  difficult 
gasps,  but  no  word  could  he  utter.  I  wiped 
his  face,  and  then  I  recognized  in  him  an 
officer  who  had  been  a  crack  athlete  when 
the  Munsters  were  in  India  and  against  whom 
I  had  competed  more  than  once.  I  pressed 
my  water  bottle  to  his  lips.  After  a  few 
moments  he  was  able  to  speak. 

:<They  are  gone!"  he  gasped;  "all  of  them 
are  gone!  By  God,  they  died  like  men;  but — 
they— died." 

"Let  me  understand  you,  sir,"  I  begged 
him.  "Tell  me  just  what  happened." 

"Where  are  you  going?"  he  almost  shouted. 
17 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

"I  am  going  back  to  get  in  touch  with  the 
Munster  Fusiliers,"  I  said. 

"You  can't  make  the  journey,"  he  panted. 
'''  You'd  have  to  go  to  heaven — or  to  hell. 
They  caught  them  in  a  pocket.  Shrapnel 
and  machine-guns.  There  are  no  Munster 
Fusiliers  any  more. " 

He  was  right,  practically.  The  Germans 
had  caught  them  between  fires  and  the 
regiment  was  cut  to  pieces. 

Helping  the  officer  as  best  I  could,  I  hurried 
forward  to  catch  up  with  my  own  regiment. 
When  I  got  in  touch  with  it  I  left  the  Fusilier 
officer  with  the  commander  of  the  first  com- 
pany I  met.  Then  I  hurried  to  the  Com- 
pany commander. 

"What  are  you  doing  here?"  he  asked. 

"I  am  here,  to  report,  sir,"  I  said.  'There 
is  no  use  trying  to  get  in  touch  with  the 
Fusiliers.  They  have  been  cut  off. " 

"Your  orders  were  to  go  back  until  you 
got  in  touch  with  them,"  he  said  gruffly. 
"Consider  yourself  under  arrest." 

A  non-commissioned  officer  and  two  men, 
with  fixed  bayonets,  were  put  on  guard  over 
me.  I  had  disobeyed  orders,  technically,  and 

18 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

during  those  first  days  in  France  many  a 
stern  act  was  necessary,  for  the  army  had  to 
learn  the  discipline  of  war. 

I  would  have  been  tied  to  a  spare  wheel 
at  the  back  of  an  artillery  caisson,  but  as 
they  were  leading  me  away  I  asked  to  speak  to 
my  sergeant.  I  explained  to  him  what  had  hap- 
pened and  he  told  my  company  commander, 
who  found  the  officer  of  the  Fusiliers.  The 
latter,  meanwhile,  had  been  taken  care  of 
by  our  officers  and  was  now  in  condition  to 
talk.  He  spoke  to  the  colonel  (Col.  Grant 
Duff) ,  explaining  just  what  had  happened  and 
telling  him  that  he  had  directed  me  to  return 
to  my  regiment.  I  was  liberated,  but  it 
was  a  mighty  close  escape  from  disgrace, 
which,  after  all,  is  worse  than  death,  especially 
to  a  soldier. 

After  that  I  was  sent  out  to  scout  on  the 
left  flank  with  my  partner,  Troolen,  who  was 
of  a  daredevil  disposition  and  worked  in  a 
noisy  fashion,  and  so  when  I  saw  something 
moving  in  the  brushwood  on  a  ridge  we  were 
approaching,  and  heard  a  sound  like  the 
trample  of  horses  on  the  other  side,  I  cautioned 
him  to  remain  where  he  was  while  I  explored 

19 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

it.  Troolen  swore  he  could  hear  nothing  and 
was  for  muddling  ahead  and  running  into 
anything  that  might  be  there,  but  I  was  in 
command  and  I  ordered  him  to  wait.  Sneak- 
ing from  stone  to  stone  and  from  tree  to  tree, 
I  worked  myself  to  a  little  pocket  which 
seemed  scalloped  out  of  the  crest  of  the  ridge 
and  found  the  ground  there  all  freshly 
trampled,  with  other  signs  that  horses  had 
left  it  recently.  There  were  no  wheel  marks, 
so  I  knew  that  it  was  cavalry,  not  artillery. 
From  the  marks  of  the  iron  shoes  I  could  tell 
that  they  were  of  a  different  type  from  ours. 

Uhlans  had  been  there. 

I  signalled  to  Troolen  and  he  joined  me. 
Climbing  to  the  crest  of  the  ridge  we  saw  the 
enemy  in  large  numbers  moving  toward  the 
road  on  which  we  were  marching,  and  they 
were  ahead  of  us.  As  we  hurried  toward 
our  regiment  we  heard  others  in  the  rear. 

As  fast  as  I  could,  I  made  my  way  to  the 
Company]  commander  and  reported  what  I 
had  seen.  Almost  at  the  same  moment  we 
were  fired  upon.  The  rifle  fire  was  imme- 
diately followed  by  artillery  shelling.  Patrols 
on  the  other  flank  had  made  sketches  of  the 

20 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

country  and  orders  were  issued  for  the  regi- 
ment to  take  cover  in  a  gully  which  was  across 
some  fields  and  the  other  side  of  a  small  woods. 
The  men  ducked  through  a  wire  fence  which 
was  at  the  side  of  the  road  and  sections  of  it 
were  torn  to  let  the  combat  wagons  through. 

As  we  retreated  we  kept  up  a  steady  fire, 
forcing  the  Uhlans  close  to  their  cover,  but 
the  artillery  continually  sprayed  over  the 
field. 

Thus  began  for  us  the  Battle  of  the  Oise. 

We  had  little  hope  of  any  support.  We 
knew  we  had  to  fight  it  out  alone,  and  there 
was  little  enough  ammunition.  I  was  running 
and  ducking  for  the  next  bit  of  cover  from 
behind  which  I  could  use  my  rifle,  when  a 
shell  exploded  behind  me.  It  threw  me  from 
my  feet  but  I  was  unhurt  and  as  I  jumped 
up  I  heard  a  crashing  and  splintering  a  few 
feet  away.  One  of  the  horses  on  an  ammuni- 
tion wagon  had  been  struck.  He  was  plunging 
on  the  ground,  terrifying  his  team  mate  and 
kicking  the  wagon  to  pieces.  The  transport 
officer,  C.  R.  B.  Henderson,  drew  his  revolver 
and  shot  the  animal. 

The  Uhlans  must  have  had  reinforcements 
21 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

for  they  were  getting  bolder.  The  bullets 
were  cutting  up  little  spurts  of  dust  and  turf 
all  about  us.  They  were  singing  overhead 
like  a  gale  in  the  ropes  and  spars  of  a  transport 
at  sea.  The  Germans  were  firing  at  the 
ammunition  wagon  in  the  hope  of  blowing 
it  up. 

I  was  just  about  to  run  for  cover  again 
when  I  saw  Lieut.  Henderson — he  who  had 
shot  the  transport  horse — walk  calmly  up 
(leading  his  own  animal)  and  cut  the  dead  one 
from  the  traces.  I  didn't  care  about  being 
killed,  but  I  couldn't  leave  this  officer,  who 
was  standing  there  as  though  he  were  on 
parade,  except  that  his  hands  were  working 
ten  times  as  fast  as  they  ever  did  at  drill. 
Together  we  got  the  dead  animal  free  and 
harnessed  the  lieutenant's  horse  to  the  wagon. 
We  used  one  of  the  lieutenant's  spiral  puttees 
to  mend  the  cut  and  broken  harness.  The 
driver  of  the  ammunition  wagon  was  holding 
the  head  of  the  other  horse,  shaking  his  fist  at 
the  Germans,  and  swearing  at  them  with  a 
heavy  Scotch  burr. 

Men  were  running  past  us  like  rabbits. 
Some  of  them  were  tumbling  like  rabbits, 

22 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

too,  when  a  steel-nosed  bullet  found  its 
mark.  I  saw  others  stoop,  just  long  enough 
to  get  an  arm  under  the  shoulders  of  a  com- 
rade and  then  drag  him  along.  A  few  lay 
still  and  a  single  look  into  their  faces  showed 
that  it  would  be  useless  to  carry  them.  The 
running  men  dropped  behind  stones,  hillocks, 
trees — anything  that  was  likely  to  afford 
cover  and  stop  bullets — and  their  rifles 
snapped  angrily  at  the  Germans  whose  fire 
was  getting  heavier,  but  who  still  did  not 
dare  an  open  attack. 

At  last  the  harness  was  ready.  The  ammu- 
nition driver  leaped  to  his  seat  and  the  wagon 
went  careening  toward  the  ravine,  swaying 
crazily,  with  a  storm  of  shots  tearing  up  the 
turf  around  its  wheels.  We  needed  that  wagon 
badly.  In  a  moment  it  would  be  over  the 
crest  of  the  rise  and  we  would  be  sure  of  that 
much  ammunition  to  fight  with. 

"Get  on  to  the  wagon,  sir,"  I  shouted  to 
the  officer,  as  it  dashed  forward;  but  he  did 
not  heed  me. 

"In  a  second  we  shall  be  where  we  can  fight 
them  off,"  was  all  he  said. 

A    Uhlan's    horse,    with    empty    saddle, 
23 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

galloped  up  to  us.  I  seized  the  dangling 
reins. 

"Mount  him,  sir,"  I  shouted.  He  took 
the  reins  from  my  hand  and  attempted  to 
leap  into  the  saddle.  The  horse  was  cut  and 
bleeding,  and  unmanageable  from  terror.  He 
backed  toward  the  ammunition  wagon,  which 
had  not  yet  made  the  ridge,  dragging  the 
officer  with  him.  I  followed. 

Just  as  we  thus  neared  the  wagon,  a  shell 
exploded  close  at  hand.  The  wagon  humped 
up  in  the  middle  as  if  it  had  been  made  of 
whalebone.  It  rocked  from  side  to  side, 
almost  upsetting.  Then  it  settled  back  upon 
its  wrecked  wheels.  A  high  explosive  shell 
had  struck  directly  under  it.  The  two  horses 
fell,  dead  from  shrapnel  or  shock,  and  the 
driver  toppled  from  his  seat,  dead,  between 
them,  a  red  smear  across  his  face. 

The  small-arms  ammunition  in  the  wagon 
had  not  been  exploded.  The  doors  of  the 
wagon  were  thrown  open  by  the  concussion 
of  the  shell,  causing  the  bandoliers  of  car- 
tridges to  scatter.  The  officer  motioned  to  me 
to  help  distribute  the  ammunition  to  our  men 
as  they  ran  past;  upon  finishing  this  task  we 

24 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

joined  the  last  of  our  party  and  were  very 
soon  over  the  crest.  We  had  only  a  few 
machine  guns,  but  we  got  them  in  place. 
The  Uhlans  were  charging  across  the  field. 

A  shrill  whistle  blew. — —The  machine  guns 
began  to  rattle.  Down  went  horses  and 
riders,  plunging  about  where  some  of  our  own 
men  lay.  Our  rifle  fire,  too,  was  getting 
stronger,  better  controlled,  more  co-ordinated. 
We  were  sheltered;  the  enemy  was  in  the 
open.  His  artillery  was  useless,  for  we  were 
coming  to  grips.  Line  after  line,  they  broke 
into  the  field,  lances  set.  The  horses  were 
stretching  out  low  over  the  turf — over  the 
turf  where  a  moment  later  they  were  to 
kick  out  the  last  of  their  breath,  pinning 
under  them  many  a  rider  to  whom  we  were 
paying  the  debt  of  the  Munster  Fusiliers. 

A  bugle  sounded.  Those  that  were 

left  of  the  Uhlans  galloped  off.  The  little 
machine  guns  had  done  their  work. 

Our  attention  was  then  attracted  to  a 
heavy  fire,  directed  from  some  unknown 
quarter  upon  a  near-by  field  in  which  was 
confined  a  large  herd  of  light  brown  cattle, 
their  colour  identical  with  that  of  our  khaki 

25 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

uniforms.  The  animals  were  milling  about 
madly;  a  dozen  of  them  already  were  down 
and  others  were  falling  each  moment.  Here 
was  one  of  the  huuiours  of  war.  We  laughed, 
believing  that  the  Germans  were  firing  upon 
the  dying  beasts,  mistaking  them  for  us — 
"The  Ladies  from  Hell,"  as  they  called  us. 

The  Scots  Greys,  which  regiment  had  come 
up  at  this  critical  moment  to  occupy  the  high 
ground  on  our  right  flank  about  six  hundred 
yards  away,  through  the  fierceness  of  their 
enfilading  fire,  managed  to  keep  the  enemy  at 
a  standstill  and  so  allowed  the  Black  Watch 
to  retreat  to  safety. 

We  owed  our  lives  to  kind  fate  in  bringing 
the  Scots  Greys  to  our  timely  aid,  and  to 
them  all  honour!  But  for  them  we  should 
have  met  the  fate  of  the  Munster  Fusiliers. 

Crawling  on  their  bellies,  some  of  our  men 
went  out  and  brought  in  those  of  the  Black 
Watch  who  were  lying  wounded.  The  others 
we  left,  for  their  own  men  would  be  there 
presently.  For  us,  it  was  retreat  again. 
After  traversing  ditches,  ravines  and  barbed- 
wire  fences,  we  finally  assembled  on  the  road. 
The  artillery  was  beginning  to  pound  once 

26 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

more.  We  had  to  trudge  on,  watching  for 
the  next  attack,  planting  one  bleeding  foot 
before  another,  with  nobody  knew  how  many 
days  of  forced  marching  before  us — marching 
(so  we  thought)  to  let  the  Russians  get  to 
Berlin.  I  don't  think  anything  else  would 
have  induced  us  to  resume  our  retreat  after 
the  brush  with  the  Uhlans. 

At  evening  we  found  ourselves  at  the  village 
of  Oise  about  six  miles  from  the  above- 
mentioned  scene.  As  we  arrived  at  the 
bridge  over  the  River  Oise,  the  engineers 
who  were  on  the  other  side,  and  who  had 
fused  the  bridge,  shouted  to  us  to  keep  back, 
but  our  colonel  gave  us  the  order  to  double. 
We  had  cleared  the  bridge  by  about  only 
two  hundred  yards,  when  it  blew  up  into 
atoms ! 

After  trudging,  mostly  uphill,  in  a  down- 
pour of  rain,  we  reached  a  place  called  Guise 
at  2  A.M.  Here  we  managed  to  get  some 
food.  I  was  glad  enough  to  throw  my  water- 
proof sheet  over  me  and  fall  asleep.  On 
being  awakened,  I  felt  as  though  I  had  slept 
for  weeks,  but  found  it  had  only  been  for  one 
hour  and  twenty  minutes.  We  then  received 

27 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

some  "gunfire"  and  our  first  issue  of  rum. 
We  resumed  the  march.  On  arriving  at  La 
Grange,  the  Camerons,  or  what  was  left  of 
them,  joined  us,  taking  the  place  of  the 
annihilated  Fusiliers  in  our  brigade. 

We  were  so  tired  that  night  that  I  could 
have  slept  on  a  bed  of  nails,  points  up,  but 
we  had  not  been  in  our  billets  very  long  when 
we  were  ordered  out,  as  the  outpost  had 
reported  the  approach  of  Uhlans  in  con- 
siderable numbers. 

We  were  half  asleep  as  we  ran  down  into 
the  street  to  our  allotted  posts.  One  of  the 
first  persons  we  encountered  in  the  town  was 
a  Frenchman,  raving  mad.  We  asked  him 
what  was  the  matter,  but  he  could  not  reply. 
He  jibbered  like  an  ape;  his  twitching  lips 
slavered  and  foamed.  Some  of  his  neigh- 
bours took  him  in  hand  and  led  him  away. 
One  of  them  told  us  his  story: 

"The  Prussians  came  in  here  yesterday. 
There  was  no  one  to  resist  them.  They  posted 
sentries.  Then  those  who  were  not  on  duty 
broke  into  cellars.  Casks  of  wine  were  rolled 
up  into  the  streets,  and,  where  squads 
gathered  together,  there  were  piles  of  bottles. 

28 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

The  soldiers  did  not  stop  to  pull  the  corks. 
They  knocked  off  the  necks  of  the  bottles 
and  filled  their  aluminum  cups  with  red 
wine  and  white,  mixing  one  type  with  another, 
and  swilling  it  in  as  fast  as  they  could  drink. 
Dozens  of  them  fell  in  the  gutters,  drunk. 
Others  reeled  through  the  village,  abusing 
and  insulting  men  and  women  alike.  If  a 
man  resisted,  he  was  shot.  This  poor  fellow, 
whom  you  have  seen,  was  in  his  door  yard 
with  his  wife.  A  Prussian  seized  her  about 
the  waist.  She  struggled.  He  crushed  her 
to  him  with  his  brutish  arm.  His  com- 
panions, all  drunk,  laughed  and  jeered.  The 
woman's  clothes  were  ripped  from  her 
shoulders  in  her  struggle.  Meanwhile  others 
bound  the  husband  to  one  of  his  own  fruit 
trees,  so  that  he  could  not  escape  the  horror 
of  it.  One — more  drunken,  more  bestial  than 
the  others — slashed  off  the  woman's  breasts 
and  threw  them  to  a  dog.  The  woman 
died." 

This  of  itself  was  enough  to  have  made 
us  rage  against  the  enemy  whom  hitherto 
we  had  regarded  as  an  honourable  foe,  but 
it  was  not  all.  I,  with  other  members  of  my 

29 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

own  company,  came  upon  a  nail  driven  into 
the  wall  of  a  barn  from  which  hung,  by  the 
mouth,  the  lifeless  form  of  a  baby.  The 
child  was  dead  when  we  found  it,  but  it  had 
died  hanging  from  the  rusty  nail.  I  know 
it  had,  because  I  saw  upon  the  wall  the 
marks  of  finger-nails  where  the  baby  had 
clawed  and  scratched.  And  besides,  a  dead 
body  would  not  have  bled.  An  officer  ordered 
the  removal  of  the  child's  body. 

I  do  not  tell  these  things  for  the  sake  of 
the  horror  of  them.  I  would  rather  not  tell 
them.  I  have  spent  months  trying  to  forget 
them.  Now  that  I  have  recalled  them,  I 
wake  in  the  night  so  horrified  that  I  cannot 
move.  But  to  relate  them  may  serve  one 
useful  purpose.  There  are  those  in  America, 
as  there  were  in  England,  who  believed  that 
war  to  repel  invasion  was  justified,  but  who 
were  not  enthusiastic  for  war  abroad.  America 
entered  the  war  after  her  patience  was  abso- 
lutely exhausted,  and  Americans  should  be 
devoutly  thankful  that  they  can  fight  abroad 
and  not  have  to  endure  the  presence  of  a  single 
Prussian  soldier  on  American  soil.  What  we 
saw  and  learned  in  Guise  galvanized  our 

30 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

weary  bodies  to  new  efforts  against  the  van- 
dals whom  we  were  fighting.  With  clenched 
teeth  and  curses  we  turned  to  fight  again. 

The  Uhlans  got  into  the  outskirts  of  the 
town  and  cut  down  a  number  of  our  men, 
but,  inch  by  inch,  as  they  drove  toward  the 
centre  of  the  village,  our  resistance  became 
stiffer  and  stiffer.  It  was  like  a  nightmare. 
The  charging  horses,  the  gruff  shouts  of  the 
enemy,  the  groans  of  the  men  who  fell  beside 
me,  were  like  their  counterparts  in  a  dream. 
My  finger  pressed  the  trigger  of  the  rifle 
feverishly.  Even  when  I  saw  the  men  I 
fired  at  topple  from  their  saddles  and  sprawl 
on  the  cobblestones,  I  had  only  a  dull  sense 
that  I  had  scored  a  hit. 

Just  as  we  were  throwing  the  enemy  back 
in  some  confusion,  a  party  of  British  worked 
round  a  back  street  and  fired  on  them  from 
the  rear.  A  second  later  a  machine  gun 
began  strewing  the  ground  with  horses  and 
men.  Squads  of  them  threw  up  their  hands 
and  cried:  "Kamerad!  Kamerad!" — which 
was  not  a  new  cry  on  the  part  of  the  Prussians. 
A  young  fellow  by  my  side  stopped  firing  for 
a  moment,  but  the  rest  of  us  knew  better- 

31 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

The  Camerons  had  lost  a  score  of  men  the 
day  before  because  they  had  taken  the 
Germans  at  their  word,  and,  when  they  went 
to  make  them  prisoners,  a  whole  company  of 
Prussians  had  risen  from  behind  the  crest  to  a 
hill  and  shot  the  Camerons  down.  So  bul- 
lets from  our  rifles  answered  the  cries  of 
"Kvmeradl'* 

A  few  of  the  enemy  escaped  down  side 
streets,  and  a  number  of  them  remained 
lying  where  they  had  been  shot.  While  we 
were  on  our  way  back  to  quarters,  a  French- 
man came  up  out  of  his  basement  and 
motioned  us  to  follow  him.  We  went  into 
the  cellar  and  found  half  a  dozen  Prussians 
lying  there  dead  drunk.  We  made  them 
prisoners  and  sent  them  to  headquarters. 


32 


CHAPTER  THREE 

I  HAD  about  got  settled  in  the  stable  where 
I  was  billeted,  when  orders  came  to 
"stand  to."  No  more  sleep  that  night. 
We  took  the  road  and  left  La  Grange  behind 
us  just  as  the  sun  was  pinking  the  sky.  It 
was  Sunday,  and,  although  we  knew  war  was 
no  respecter  of  the  Sabbath,  we  had  not  been 
in  the  field  long  enough  to  get  the  idea  quite 
out  of  our  heads  that  Sunday,  somehow,  in 
in  the  nature  of  things,  was  a  little  easier  than 
other  days.  When  we  halted  in  a  ravine  at 
about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  after  march- 
ing four  hours,  we  thought  after  all  that  it 
was  going  to  be  an  easier  day.  I  was  on 
outpost  duty  on  a  side  road  a  little  way  from 
the  main  thoroughfare  we  had  been  following. 
Suddenly  an  infernal  racket  broke  out  over 
to  our  left.  First  there  came  a  few  scattered 
cracks  of  rifle  fire.  Then  I  could  hear  clip 
firing  and  the  rattle  of  machine  guns.  I 
learned  later  that  the  Scots  Greys  and  the 

33 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

12th  Lancers  had  come  across  about  seven 
thousand  Germans  resting  in  a  wide  gully. 
The  Greys  and  the  Lancers,  catching  them 
unawares  by  cutting  down  their  sentries  who 
had  no  opportunity  even  to  give  the  alarm- 
charged  through  them,  then  back  again. 
Three  times  they  repeated  their  performance, 
while  some  of  our  brigade  got  on  to  the  flanks 
and  poured  in  such  a  rapid  fire  that  the 
Prussians  had  no  opportunity  to  re-form  to 
meet  each  repetition  of  the  attack.  The 
details  do  not  matter,  but  they  made  up  for 
the  annihilation  of  the  Munster  Fusiliers. 

In  the  newspaper  accounts  of  the  cam- 
paign this  incident  was  described  as  the 
"Great  St.  Quentin  Charge,"  in  which,  it 
was  asserted,  the  Black  Watch  (foot  soldiers) 
participated,  holding  onto  the  stirrups  of 
the  Scots  Greys.  This  bit  of  colouring  was 
an  inaccuracy.  WTe  aided  the  Greys  and  the 
Lancers  with  rifle  and  machine-gun  fire  only. 
When  the  firing  ceased  and  the  Greys  and 
the  Lancers  came  cantering  past,  we  learned 
from  them  the  details  of  the  Battle  of  "St. 
Quentin. " 

At  nightfall  our  section  was  still  guarding 

34 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

the  road  at  a  point  from  which  a  cart  road 
branched  off  at  right  angles  to  the  main 
thoroughfare.  It  was  here  that  the  outpost 
received  instructions  in  a  few  French  phrases, 
the  main  one  being  "Votre  passe.,  s'il  vous 
plait."  ("Your  pass,  please.")  This  was 
because  the  road  was  open  to  refugees  who 
were  fleeing  from  the  Boches,  and  who  had  to 
show  passes  before  being  allowed  to  go  on. 
The  absence  of  the  pass  meant  that  the  person 
would  be  sent  to  headquarters  for  examination. 
It  was  quite  natural  that  some  of  us  Scots 
should  find  it  difficult  to  make  ourselves 
familiar  with  these  phrases.  However,  we 
were  all  willing  to  try.  One  strapping  High- 
lander, weary  and  footsore  but  daunted  by 
nothing,  practised  the  phrases  dutifully, 
though  the  French  words  were  almost  lost 
in  the  encounter  with  his  native  Scotch. 
We  chuckled,  but  he  merely  glowered  at  us 
indignantly,  and  then  went  to  take  his  place 
on  sentry  go.  Two  Frenchmen  came  along 
in  a  wagon.  The  Highlander  blocked  their 
way  and  sternly  uttered  what  he  conceived 
to  be  the  phrase  he  had  been  told  to  use.  The 
Frenchmen  sat  mystified.  There  was  a  roar 

35 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

of  laughter  when  the  Highlander,  losing 
patience,  shouted:  "Pass  us  if  ye  daur!" 
Then  his  sergeant  came  to  the  rescue. 

These  two  Frenchmen  in  the  wagon  were 
the  last  refugees  to  pass.  Soon  afterward, 
from  my  station  farther  down  the  road,  I 
heard  a  clatter  of  hoofs  and  caught  a  glimpse 
of  Uhlans'  helmets.  I  had  barely  time  to  pass 
the  word  to  the  man  on  the  next  post  and  to 
jump  behind  a  log  before  they  came  into 
view.  They  were  riding,  full  gallop  into  our 
lines,  apparently  having  abandoned  ordinary 
scouting  precautions  in  their  eagerness  to 
strike  where  and  when  they  might  against 
our  worn  and  lacerated  forces.  We,  now, 
had  fought  so  long  that  we  fought  mechanic- 
ally. Over  my  protecting  log,  I  aimed  at 
the  leading  horseman  as  precisely  and  care- 
fully as  if  I  had  been  at  rifle  practice.  When 
I  pulled  the  trigger  he  tumbled  into  the  road, 
rolled  over  awkwardly,  and  lay  still.  I  did 
not  feel  as  if  I  had  killed  a  man.  I  felt  only 
a  mild  sense  of  satisfaction  with  the  accuracy 
of  my  aim.  Bitter  hate  for  the  Huns  had 
sprung  in  the  heart  of  every  one  of  us  after 
what  we  had  that  day  seen  of  theh\  savagery. 

36 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

I  had  got  my  Uhlan  at,  perhaps,  seventy 
yards.  His  fall  checked  the  squad's  advance 
for  a  moment  only.  The  man  nearest  grasped 
at  the  bridle  of  the  dead  man's  horse  but 
missed  it.  On  they  all  came,  galloping  reck- 
lessly and  yelling,  the  riderless  horse  leading 
by  a  half  dozen  lengths.  As  they  rode,  they 
fired  in  my  direction,  but  their  bullets  went 
wide.  I  felt  real  compunction  as  I  aimed  at 
the  head  of  the  leading  horse — the  one  whose 
rider  I  had  shot  down  with  only  a  sense  of 
satisfaction.  I  could  hear  our  men  crashing 
through  the  bushes  by  the  road  as  they  came 
to  my  support.  I  fired.  My  bullet  must 
have  struck  the  riderless  horse  in  the  brain, 
for  he  fell  instantly,  sprawled  out  in  the  path 
of  the  galloping  Huns  behind.  The  horses 
of  the  leaders  stumbled  over  the  fallen  animal. 
A  rattle  of  shots  from  our  men  completed  the 
confusion  of  the  Uhlans.  They  turned  their 
horses  and  galloped  away — some  back  along 
the  road,  others  across  the  fields.  Several  fell 
under  our  fire;  how  many  we  had  no  time  to 
ascertain. 

After  that  little  affair  we  organized  our 
position  for  a  somewhat  better  defence. 

37 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Leaving  a  few  scouts,  far  advanced,  we  sta- 
tioned our  men  in  easy  touch  with  each  other 
and  then  cut  down  a  number  of  trees  and 
telegraph  poles  and  barricaded  the  road  with 
them.  There  were  sixteen  of  us  in  the  post 
near  this  barricade,  concealed  from  view  and 
able  to  communicate  with  each  other  in 
whispers.  The  hours  dragged  on  to  midnight 
and  past.  We  were  weary  to  the  bone— 
half  dead  for  want  of  sleep — but  we  dared 
not  relax  our  vigilance  for  an  instant. 

The  surrounding  country  was  dense  with 
woods.  The  moon  was  almost  new,  so  con- 
sequently the  poles  were  quite  invisible  a 
few  yards  away. 

At  about  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  I 
heard  something  crackling  through  the  brush 
on  the  side  road.  My  bayonet  was  fixed 
and  I  was  ready  to  fire.  The  crackling  came 
nearer.  I  crept  stealthily  forward  to  meet 
whatever  it  was.  Presently  a  man  stepped 
into  the  road.  "Halt!"  I  cried.  He  halted 
at  once,  and  gave  the  word  "Friend."  It 
was  one  of  our  sentries  with  a  message  that 
Uhlans  were  coming  along  the  road.  Three 
men  were  farther  down  the  road;  they  had 

38 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

hidden  so  that  the  Uhlans  would  pass  them, 
the  sentry  said. 

A  section  of  us  concealed  ourselves — and 
waited.  Presently  the  Uhlans  came  into 
sight,  proceeding  cautiously.  Half  of  us  were 
instructed  to  withhold  fire  until  the  Prussians 
should  reach  the  barricade.  The  remainder 
began  to  fire.  The  horsemen  scattered  to 
each  side  of  the  road  and  returned  the  fire, 
but  as  we  were  not  discernible,  the  shots 
went  wild.  I  judged  that  they  numbered 
about  fifty.  We  dropped  a  few  of  them. 
They  were  becoming  enraged — their  fire  in- 
effective. They  mounted;  and  the  leader 
spurred  his  horse,  and,  followed  by  the 
others,  galloped  in  our  direction.  Their  car- 
bines spat  red  flashes  into  the  night.  Their 
bullets  were  coming  closer  now,  because  they 
could  determine  where  we  were  lying  in  the 
ditches  at  the  side  of  the  road  from  the  flashes 
of  our  rifles. 

"Will  they  see  the  trees  across  the  road- 
way?" was  the  thought  that  darted  through 
my  mind.  If  they  should,  it  would  probably 
be  all  up  with  us.  As  they  came  very  close 
to  the  barricade,  they  did  notice  it.  They 

39 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

made  a  bold  leap  across,  but  having  under- 
estimated the  number  of  logs  there,  they 
found  themselves  in  great  confusion.  Some 
of  them  were  pinned  under  their  fallen  horses. 
At  this  point,  we  opened  fire,  which  com- 
pleted their  discomfiture.  Above  the  sound 
of  our  rifle  firing  we  could  hear  the  now- 
familiar  cry  of  "Kamerad!"  "Kamerad!"  It 
only  served  to  infuriate  us  and  made  us  shoot 
all  the  faster. 

This  might  well  arouse  against  us  the 
criticism  of  those  who  never  witnessed  atroc- 
ities committed  by  the  Huns,  but  you  must 
remember  that  our  blood  had  not  come  down 
to  normal  from  the  effects  of  the  sights  we 
ourselves  had  come  across. 

At  last,  we  leaped  out  to  make  prisoners 
of  the  trapped  Uhlans.  Those  who  could, 
bolted  back  hi  the  direction  they  came  from, 
but  it  was  a  sure  thing  that  twelve  of  them 
were  missing  when  the  roll  was  called. 

One  might  consider  that  a  night's  work, 
but  it  wrasn't. 

It  was  now  my  turn  for  sentry  go  on  the 
main  road,  which  was  still  open  for  vehicles 
of  our  staff.  This  was  a  post  where  it  was 

40 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

thought  that,  to  use  an  American  phrase, 
there  would  be  "nothing  doing";  yet  it  was 
here  that  I  came  face  to  face  with  one  of 
the  war's  finest  examples  of  Teutonic  over- 
assurance — boldness  that  would  have  been 
splendid  had  it  not  been  stupid. 

After  I  had  been  at  my  new  post  an  hour,  it 
then  being  near  three  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
a  motor  car  came  swiftly  toward  me.  I  had 
been  warned  that  I  might  expect  staff  officers 
to  pass,  and  this,  I  thought,  was  undoubtedly 
some  of  them — otherwise  the  car  would  have 
advanced  slowly.  I  stepped  into  the  road  and 
awaited  its  approach.  As  it  neared  me  I  saw 
that  the  two  officers  it  contained  wore  the 
uniforms  of  the  British  staff.  I  could  see 
the  red  tabs  on  their  collars. 

There  were  two  telegraph  poles  across  the 
road  near  my  post.  Remembering  this,  I 
showed  myself  and  called  for  the  chauffeur  to 
halt.  He  checked  the  car's  speed  but  brought 
it  ahead  slowly.  I  shouted  for  the  counter- 
sign. I  was  waiting  for  the  occupants  of  the 
car  to  give  it,  intending  to  explain  to  them 
that  they  would  have  to  stop  until  I  called 
some  one  to  help  me  remove  the  telegraph 

41 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

poles,  when  there  was  a  sudden  grinding  of 
gears  and  the  car  shot  ahead,  full  speed. 
I  yelled  a  warning  about  the  poles  but  the 
words  left  my  lips  at  about  the  moment  when 
the  car  bounced  over  them. 

Until  that  time  I  had  no  suspicion  that  the 
occupants  of  the  car  were  not  what  they 
seemed.  Even  then,  the  manner  in  which 
they  "rushed"  my  post  seemed  to  me  only 
due  to  some  inexplicable  misunderstanding. 
But  I  had  marched,  and  fought,  and  gone 
sleepless  and  hungry  until  I  was  little  more 
than  a  mechanical  soldier.  I  was  able  to 
realize  only  that  somebody,  for  some  reason, 
had  ignored  my  challenge  and  rushed  a 
sentry  post.  I  swung  my  rifle  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  car,  aimed  accurately  (in  an 
automatic  way),  and  pulled  the  trigger.  The 
noise  of  an  exploding  tire  followed  the  crack 
of  my^  weapon.  The  car  skidded,  twisted 
for  a  moment,  and  then  went  on — faster 
than  ever. 

My  shot  aroused  our  outpost.  The  alarm 
was  given  to  the  first  of  the  connecting  sentries 
and  passed  along  quickly  until  it  reached  our 
company  headquarters,  on  the  roadside  oppo- 

42 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

site  to  a  chateau  in  which  Brigade  Staff 
headquarters  had  been  established.  Men 
half  awake,  tumbled  into  the  roadway  pre- 
paring to  fire  on  something  or  somebody — they 
didn't  know  what.  It  was  useless  for  the 
car  to  attempt  to  rush  the  crowd.  Again 
the  chauffeur  checked  it,  this  time  bringing  it 
to  a  full  stop.  One  of  the  occupants  (who,  it 
will  be  remembered,  were  in  staff  uniform) 
demanded  sharply  of  the  sentry  in  front  of 
the  chateau: 

"What  is  the  meaning  of  this?  Are  there 
nothing  but  blockheads  about  here?  We  have 
been  fired  on  while  looking  for  Brigade  head- 
quarters. Somebody  should  be  court-mar- 
tialled  for  this." 

The  sentry  saluted  them  and  admitted 
them  to  the  grounds  of  the  chateau. 

Their  car  had  disappeared  within  the  gates 
when  I  came  running  down  the  road  and 
informed  my  company  commander  what  had 
happened.  He  instantly  ordered  our  men 
to  surround  the  chateau  and  rushed  in  him- 
self, following  the  car  up  the  avenue  lead- 
ing through  the  grounds.  The  "staff 
officers"  had  abandoned  their  car  in  the 

43 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

shadow  of  a  clump  of  trees  and  were  seeking 
to  escape  over  the  garden  wall  when  our 
men  captured  them.  One  of  them,  speaking 
English  without  a  trace  of  accent,  still  tried 
to  "bluff"  our  men  who  seized  him,  and  his 
assumed  indignation  was  so  convincing  that, 
but  for  the  direct  orders  from  the  company 
commander,  the  men  might  have  released 
him,  believing  him  really  an  officer  of  our 
forces.  Each  of  the  two  wore  the  uniform 
of  a  staff  major  with  all  the  proper  badges 
and  insignia.  It  was  found  that  they  were 
German  spies  with  rough  maps  of  the  dis- 
position of  our  retreating  forces  and  oth- 
er valuable  information  in  their  posses- 
sion. I  was  informed,  later,  that  they  were 
shot. 

Before  dawn,  we  got  orders  to  retire  again. 
It  was  always  retire — retire.  We  were  ready 
to  fight  ten  times  our  number  if  only  we 
could  stop  retiring. 

Shortly  after  leaving  this  position  we  saw 
an  airplane  overhead.  A  few  minutes  later 
shrapnel  began  bursting  in  our  direction.  We 
scattered  to  each  side  of  the  highway,  keep- 
ing under  cover  as  best  we  could. 

44 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

We  marched  all  day — God  knows  how  far— 
and  finally,  between  one  and  two  the  following 
morning,  reached  a  place  which  we  believed 
to  be  Pinon. 


45 


CHAPTER  FOUR 

AS  WE  neared  Pinon,  the  sound  of 
artillery  fire  could  be  heard,  and  the 
inhabitants  were  all  leaving  the  town 
in  any  way  that  they  could.  Here  I  saw 
further  effects  of  Prussian  atrocities. 

At  this  spot,  a  French  woman,  supporting 
her  mutilated  husband  as  best  she  could, 
passed  us  in  a  buggy.  The  sight  was  awful! 
His  face  and  body  were  almost  entirely  covered 
with  gashes  from  the  Prussians'  bayonets.  His 
wife's  face  was  as  white  as  death  except  where 
three  cruel  cuts  had  laid  it  open.  Neither  of 
this  pitiful  pair  was  less  than  sixty  years  old. 
Fine  "enemies"  for  soldiers'  weapons! 

Beyond  this  last  village  we  lay  in  the  open 
for  a  few  hours'  rest.  We  were  so  utterly 
exhausted  that  officers  and  men  alike  threw 
themselves  upon  the  ground  and  instantly 
were  asleep.  My  last  waking  recollection 
was  of  the  sight  of  an  officer  of  the  guard 
striding  wearily  to  and  fro.  He  was  afraid 

46 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

even  to  sit  for  fear  sleep  might  conquer 
him.  And  my  next  recollection — seemingly 
coming  right  on  the  heels  of  the  one  I  have 
mentioned — was  of  being  shaken  by  the 
shoulders  and  having  the  warning  shouted  into 
my  ear  that  we  had  got  orders  to  force-march 
instantly. 

"They  say  some  of  the  blighters  have  got 
round  us  by  the  flank,"  said  the  man  who 
shook  me.  "  Make  haste ! " 

We  had  rested  less  than  three  hours.  Off 
we  went  on  another  "retirement. "  This  time 
under  the  drive  of  urgent  necessity  for  speed. 

We  must  have  marched  at  an  extraordinary 
rate,  because  it  was  not  yet  noon  when  we 
arrived  at  the  outskirts  of  Soissons.  From  the 
high  ground  on  our  right  flank,  we  could 
see  cavalry^and  artillery  in  great  numbers, 
but  whether  ours  or  the  enemy's,  none  of 
us  knew — not  even  the  officers.  As  we  arrived 
in  the  town  we  were  greeted  with  artillery 
fire;  then  we  knew  who  it  was  that  awaited 
us. 

We  got  into  a  lumber  yard  and  returned 
the  fire,  but  I  don't  think  either  side  did 
much  damage.  Their  bullets  sang  through 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

the   lumber  gallery.     The   melody   was   one 
that  had  become  familiar  to  us. 

Retreating  through  Soissons,  we  kept  up  a 
stiff  fight,  arriving  intact  at  the  farther  end 
of  the  town.  Here  we  came  upon  fresh  and 
terrible  evidence  of  the  ruthlessness  and  wan- 
ton cruelty  of  the  foe  which  we  had  first 
confronted  but  a  few  days  before,  then 
believing  that  the  traditions  of  honourable 
warfare  still  existed.  We  came  across  scores 
of  refugees — old  men  and  women — who  had 
been  beaten  and  driven  from  their  homes 
without  cause.  We  had  passed  the  dead 
bodies  of  many  townspeople — killed,  seem- 
ingly, by  artillery  fire,  yet,  in  some  cases, 
exhibiting  suspicious  wounds,  as  if  bayonets 
or  lances  had  been  used.  It  was  not,  however, 
until  we  were  marching  through  the  throng  of 
refugees,  outside  the  town,  that  indisputable 
and  utterly  shocking  proofs  of  the  inhumanity 
of  the  Huns  came  to  our  eyes.  In  perambula- 
tors we  saw  wailing  children  with  mangled 
or  missing  hands.  I  know  that  it  has  been 
hotly  disputed  that  such  dastardly  crimes  as 
these  were  committed  by  the  Germans.  I 
know  also  that  the  disputants  who  contend 

48 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

against  the  truth  of  these  reports  never 
marched  with  us  the  weary  and  awful  miles 
amid  the  fleeing  and  miserable  people  of 
Soissons. 

These  mutilated  children  I,  myself f  and  my 
comrades  saw.  Two  at  least,  I  recollect 
with  bloody  stumps  where  baby  hands  had 
been,  and  one  whose  foot  had  been  severed 
at  the  ankle.  /  saw  these  things.  I  saw 
them;  and  I  live  to  say  that  others  with  me 
saw  them — brawny  Highlanders  whose  tears 
of  pity  flowed  with  those  of  the  mothers  who 
wept  for  heart-break  and  with  those  of  the 
babies  who  wept  from  the  pain  of  the  wounds 
which  had  maimed  them.  Ay,  there  were 
witnesses  enough;  and  witnesses  remain, 
though  many  of  the  Black  Watch  who  that 
day  saw  and  cursed  the  cowardly  brutality 
of  the  Huns  were  to  lie,  but  too  soon,  with 
their  voices  hushed  for  ever,  so  that  they  may 
not  speak  of  it.  But  we  who  still  live  may  tell 
of  it — and  dare  a  challenge  of  the  truth  of 
what  we  say !  And  those  who  saw,  and  died— 
paying  the  toll  of  that  bloody  passing  from 
the  Mons  to  the  Marne — have  told  it,  no 
doubt,  ere  this — before  that  Court  whose 

49 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

judgment  can  impose  the  eternal  punishment 
that  the  soulless  crimes  demand. 

There  were  thousands  in  the  unhappy 
throng  of  refugees.  Some  few  rode  upon 
hay  carts,  surrounded  by  such  of  their  belong- 
ings as  they  had  been  able  hastily  to  gather. 
Others  pushed  handcarts  containing  their 
goods  and  household  articles.  Most  of  them 
however,  went  afoot,  trudging  wearily  along 
and  carrying  what  they  might.  There,  in 
that  sickening  scene,  it  was  as  it  is  everywhere. 
The  grotesque  and  the  humorous  mixed  incon- 
gruously with  the  pathetic.  For  instance: 
Alongside  one  perambulator  with  a  wounded 
child  in  it  rolled  another  one  loaded  with 
huge  rings  of  bread,  on  top  of  which  perched 
a  parrot,  screaming  at  every  one  who  passed. 

One  old  lady  was  trudging  along  carrying  a 
baby  which  could  not  have  been  more  than 
two  and  a  half  years  old,  though  the  weight 
of  his  chubby  frame  was  bending  her  almost 
double.  I  could  not  speak  her  language,  but 
I  made  her  understand  that  I  would  carry  the 
child  a  mile  or  two  and  leave  him  by  the  side 
of  the  road.  The  laughter  and  baby  antics 
of  the  child  brought  a  ray  of  sunshine  to  our 

50 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

section,  and  especially  to  fathers  who  had 
left  tots  behind  them  in  Scotland.  About  an 
hour  later  I  came  to  a  group  by  the  roadside, 
who  recognized  the  baby,  and  I  left  him  with 
them,  making  them  understand  that  the  old 
lady  would  be  along  later. 

One  of  the  last  things  I  remember  in  leaving 
Soissons  was  an  old  man  who  was  carrying 
his  furniture  and  household  goods  to  what 
looked  like  a  modern  dug-out  in  an  embank- 
ment and  covering  it  with  earth  so  that  it 
would  not  be  discovered.  The  boys  made  a 
lot  of  fun  of  him,  but  the  laugh  was  not  on 
their  lips  very  long. 

We  had  just  reached  the  top  of  a  hill  on  the 
farther  side  of  the  city,  overlooking  the  rail- 
road yards  and  repair  shops,  when  we  came 
into  direct  view  of  the  German  artillery 
observers,  and  shrapnel  began  to  storm  down 
among  us.  It  was  like  the  sudden  burst  of  a 
thunder  cloud.  There  wasn't  a  moment's 
warning  before  the  smoke  puffs  began  appear- 
ing overhead  and  the  ugly  steel  splinters 
and  slugs  whizzed  over  our  heads. 

The  regiment  deployed  in  a  corn  field  at 
one  side  of  the  road  and  scattered,  moving 

51 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

some  distance  from  the  highway.  The  enemy 
continued  to  sprinkle  the  corn  with  shrapnel 
but  we  lay  flat  on  the  ground  until  the  firing 
ceased.  The  company's  cooks  meanwhile,  at 
some  little  distance  ahead  of  us,  had  prepared 
"gunfire,"  and  the  various  companies  lined 
up  in  file  to  receive  their  well-earned  and 
much-desired  quota  of  it.  As  the  cooks 
had  to  keep  ahead  of  the  regiment,  there 
was  no  time  lost  in  disposing  of  the  tea,  and 
many  of  the  men  had  to  drink  it  on  the  run. 

XA  little  farther  on  we  halted  for  a  few  hours' 
sleep,  and  at  ten  minutes  to  three  we  found 
ourselves  again  on  the  move.  We  marched 
all  that  day  through  a  large  and  dense  forest. 
Now  and  again  we  were  surprised  by  occa- 
sional artillery  shots  at  the  more  open  sections, 
but  the  trees  helped  a  great  deal  in  protecting 
us  from  the  enemy's  airplanes,  and  proved  a 
hindrance  to  their  tactics.  But  with  the 
cavalry  it  was  a  different  matter.  Uhlans 
harassed  us  every  hour  of  the  day.  We  had 
only  about  two  machine  guns  to  a  battalion, 
and  they  were  worked  so  steadily  and  so  hard 
that  they  repeatedly  jammed.  Once  we  were 
almost  cut  off.  A  party  of  Uhlans  came 

52 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

clattering  down  on  our  heels  driving  the  rear 
guard  in  on  the  support,  and  for  a  few  moments 
there  was  what  approached  a  modern  barrage 
fire  of  artillery  on  the  road  in  our  front. 
Luckily  for  us,  the  artillery  fire  slackened  for 
some  reason  and  we  got  ahead  before  the 
Uhlans  could  envelop  us. 

Later  in  the  day  I  was  serving  in  the  rear 
guard.  Suddenly  we  heard  the  roaring  of  a 
motor.  We  took  cover  at  the  sides  of  the 
road.  Our  "point"  —was  in  the  rear,  and, 
if  there  was  anything  wrong,  we  knew  they 
would  inform  us.  The  roaring  of  the  motor 
grewT  louder.  We  were  so  tired  that  our 
nerves  jangled.  I  had  never  felt  so  jumpy. 
There  it  came  around  the  bend  with  a  Red 
Cross  flag  flying  from  it,  but  it  was  not  one 
of  our  ambulances.  It  had  great,  heavy, 
double  wheels  and  there  were  Red  Crosses 
painted  on  its  sides  in  addition  to  the  flag 
flying  from  the  front.  Our  impression  was 
that  it  had  gone  off  its  course.  The  chauffeur 
had  released  the  muffler  cut-out  and  the  engine 
was  running  very  quietly  now.  A  man  sitting 
beside  the  driver  and  leaning  far  out  over  the 
side  was  yelling  in  broken  English  that  they 

53 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

were  lost,  and  he  gesticulated  toward  the 
body  of  the  car  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  us 
think  that  he  had  badly  wounded  men  with 
him. 

We  began  scrambling  back  onto  the  road. 
Our  war  was  not  against  the  wounded  and 
suffering,  so  we  would  let  them  pass. 

Suddenly  the  ambulance  stopped;  the  sides 
of  it  quickly  rose;  machine  guns  showed 
their  ugly  muzzles. 

"Br-r-r-r-r  t-t-t,"  they  began  to  sputter. 

I  leaped  backward  and  fell  headlong  into 
the  ditch.  Everybody  was  jumping  for  cover. 
The  bullets  lashed  the  road  and  ricocheted 
far  upon  it.  Scarcely  a  man  of  us  was  hit, 
but  we  were  in  wild  confusion.  I  cannot 
describe  the  scene.  No  one  seemed  to  think 
of  putting  his  rifle  to  his  shoulder.  The 
horror  of  it — the  passionate  anger  against 
such  vile  trickery — drove  us  into  a  rage;  but 
—for  the  moment — it  was  an  impotent  rage. 
We  seemed  to  be  at  their  mercy. 

Then  the  platoon  commander's  voice  rose 
above  the  rat-a-tat  of  the  machine  guns: 

"Steady,  men!  Fire  at  will,  but  pick  your 
men  carefully. " 

54 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

We  had  heard  him  speak  in  the  same  tone 
on  parade.  It  brought  us  to  our  senses.  The 
edge  of  the  ditch  on  each  side  of  the  road 
fairly  flamed  with  the  sputter  of  rifle  fire. 
The  "ambulance"  was  riddled.  A  Prussian 
officer  toppled  into  the  middle  of  the  road. 
Half  a  dozen  men  sprang  from  the  ditch  and 
rushed  at  him  with  bayonets.  They  killed 
him  like  a  rat.  There  was  no  compunction 
about  it. 

There  was  now  heard  the  thrumming  of 
more  motors  approaching.  Round  the  turn 
in  the  road  they  came.  This  time  it  was 
transports — laden  with  German  troops.  There 
was  no  attempt  at  disguise  with  this  mob. 
They  thought  thai  their  camouflaged  battery 
wTould  by  now  have  done  its  dirty  work. 
Sweating  and  tugging  and  straining,  we 
managed  to  topple  the  "ambulance"  over  in 
the  road.  The  trucks  came  dashing  up  as  we 
retreated — retreated  only  to  get  in  touch  with 
our  support.  The  men  cheered  wildly  as 
two  of  our  own  machine  guns  came  up.  We 
turned  the  wee  fellows  loose  on  the  Germans — 
gave  them  a  taste  of  their  own  medicine. 

Some  of  them  came  running  toward  us 
55 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

shouting:  "Kameradl  Kamerad!"  We  shot 
them  down  as  they  ran — shot  them  without 
hesitation — after  the  dastardly  trick  they  had 
played  on  us.  Probably  they  were  even  then 
trying  another  ruse. 

The  fight  surged  backward  and  forward. 
The  Germans  tried  to  press  ahead. 

Then  something  happened  which  we  had 
not  expected.  A  burst  of  shrapnel  sprayed 
over  the  Germans.  In  a  few  seconds  there 
was  another.  Then  two  shells  exploded  at 
once — three — four!  A  rain  of  fire,  as  the 
French  say,  was  upon  them.  We  were  getting 
support  from  our  own  artillery.  That  was 
something  new  and  it  put  heart  into  us. 

The  regiment  re-formed  and  proceeded  with 
an  orderly  retirement,  while  the  artillery, 
like  a  barrier  of  steel,  held  the  enemy  at  his 
distance  all  the  rest  of  the  day.  We  were 
near  to  exhaustion  and  some  of  the  men 
dropped  out  of  the  ranks  only  to  die  of  the 
strain.  Although  our  pipers  were  as  weary 
as  the  rest  of  us,  they  sensed  that  we  needed 
encouragement,  and  with  great  effort  struck 
up  a  march.  Very  soon  we  had  left  the 
forest  behind  us. 

56 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  effect  of  the 
skirl  of  those  pipes  that  day.  It  was  like  a 
message  from  Heaven.  We  had  not  heard 
them  since  Mons,  and  now  they  were  leading 
us  out  of  a  forest  that  was  a  picture  of  weird- 
ness  itself;  leading  us  out  into  the  beautiful 
open  country.  What  joy  we  felt! 

At  this  time  we  were  retiring  almost  directly 
toward  Paris.  For  seventeen  hours  we 
marched  with  halts  only  when  it  was  abso- 
lutely necessary.  We  had  been  in  France  four 
weeks,  though  it  seemed  like  four  years. 

One  of  our  chief  discomforts  was  the  lack  of 
water.  Toward  evening  we  halted  alongside 
a  cucumber  patch.  The  men  simply  went 
wild,  running  into  the  field  and  sucking  the 
juicy  young  cucumbers.  I  "drank"  twelve 
myself,  but  we  had  not  had  time  to  satisfy 
ourselves  when  the  Prussian  artillery  got  the 
range  again  and  we  had  to  get  out  of  the 
field — those  of  us  who  could.  I  have  heard 
some  "cussing"  during  my  career  in  the 
army,  but  I  don't  think  I  ever  listened  to 
anything  quite  like  the  brand  that  accom- 
panied our  departure  from  that  field. 

After  marching  a  considerable  distance, 
57 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

we  were  billeted  in  barns  in  a  small  village. 
This  was  a  cheering  circumstance,  as  the 
farmer  gave  us  chickens  and  allowed  us  to 
get  vegetables  to  make  up  a  real  warm  meal, 
which  I  can  assure  you  was  enjoyed  royally. 
We  expected  to  stay  here  some  time,  so  we 
made  for  the  barns  and  lay  down  among  the 
hay. 

I  don't  think  you  could  possibly  form  an 
idea  of  the  utter  weariness  of  the  men  or  of 
the  manner  in  which  we  were  incessantly 
harassed.  We  never  got  a  decent  chance  to 
eat,  drink,  or  rest.  The  incidents  of  the 
cornfield  and  the  cucumber  patch  are  typical. 
Many  men  died  of  sheer  exhaustion.  When 
we  entered  the  barn  I  was  so  absolutely 
petered  out  that  I  went  to  sleep  almost  be- 
fore my  body  touched  the  hay. 

We  had  been  in  the  barn  only  about  two 
hours  when  there  was  a  great  commotion. 
I  waked  up  half  suffocated,  but  I  didn't 
care.  Somebody  kicked  me  in  the  ribs  as  I 
was  turning  over  to  sleep  again. 

"  The  barn's  on  fire!"  he  yelled. 

There  was  an  odour  of  paraffin.  It  seemed 
that  some  German  agent  had  started  the  fire. 

58 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Probably  it  was  the  owner  of  the  place,  using 
German  "kultur. "  Germany  had  left  scores 
of  such  spies  planted  in  the  country,  after 
1871. 

After  the  fire  in  the  barn  we  got  a  couple 
of  hours  more  sleep,  then  moved  off  again 
about  three  o'clock  in  the  morning.  We 
were  on  the  Metz  road  going  east,  but  did 
not  know  it  until  our  officers  informed  us 
that  we  were  heading  toward  the  Franco- 
German  frontier.  They  were  ever  optimistic 
and  helped  to  lighten  the  burdens  of  men 
who  were  on  the  last  lap  by  carrying  some- 
times the  rifles  of  four  of  them  at  one  time 
on  their  shoulders.  In  the  afternoon  we  came 
to  Coulommiers.  Most  of  the  inhabitants 
were  leaving,  and  a  herald — such  as  existed 
in  the  Middle  Ages, — was  going  through  the 
town  beating  a  kettle-drum  and  crying  to 
all  the  civilians  to  take  everything  they 
could  carry  and  leave  the  place.  But  this 
herald  was  a  middle-aged  woman. 

About  two  o'clock  that  same  day,  we  were 
on  the  banks  of  a  stream  and  the  whole 
regiment  began  making  preparations  for  a 
swim.  Some  were  already  in  the  water, 

59 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

but  had  scarcely  got  entirely  wet  when  the 
German  artillery  began  churning  the  water 
with  shrapnel.  The  bodies  of  many  of  my 
comrades  went  floating  down  stream. 

That  night  my  company  guarded  a  road 
protected  by  barbed-wire  entanglements  and 
lined  with  poplar  trees;  just  the  kind  of  road 
you  so  often  see  pictured  in  France  or  Bel- 
gium. The  main  body  of  the  regiment  was 
dug  in  the  side  of  a  hill  overlooking  this 
road.  It  was  again  the  luck  of  my  section 
to  protect  the  road  some  two  hundred  yards 
in  advance  of  the  regiment.  We  entrenched 
ourselves  on  each  side  in  such  a  manner  that 
one  could  advance  within  ten  yards  without 
detecting  our  position.  We  placed  a  few 
strands  of  the  barbed-wire  fencing  across 
the  road  a  little  distance  ahead  of  us. 

About  midnight,  I  was  awakened  by  some- 
one tugging  at  me.  It  was  the  sentry. 
He  pointed  far  up  the  road,  and,  as  there 
was  a  certain  amount  of  moonlight,  I  could 
see  something  moving  between  the  tall  poplar 
trees.  He  asked  me  what  it  was  and  I 
told  him  that  it  was  our  cavalry.  How- 
ever, I  told  him  he  should  inform  the  section 

60 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

commander;  and  then  I  rolled  off  to  sleep 
again. 

Presently  I  felt  a  second  tug  at  me. 
On  looking  up  I  found  it  was  our  sergeant; 
he  whispered:  "Be  ready  to  spring  up  at  a 
moment's  notice."  The  others  were  already 
in  position.  In  the  dim  light  I  could  see 
the  queer-shaped  lance-caps  that  the  Uhlans 
wore. 

"Halt!  Who  goes  there?"  shouted  the 
sentry. 

"Freunden,"  said  a  voice  in  reply. 

With  that  they  were  almost  on  the  barbed- 
wire,  and  we  greeted  them  in  the  way  such 
"friends"  should  be  greeted.  There  was  a 
tremendous  turmoil.  All  but  two  fell  into 
our  hands.  To  be  exact,  fifteen  were  cap- 
tured and  three  killed.  Three  of  the  captives 
were  officers. 

One  of  the  officers,  when  searched,  was 
found  to  have  in  his  possession  a  novelty 
mirror  with  the  photograph  of  a  girl  on  the 
back.  He  made  no  fuss  about  giving  up 
anything  but  the  mirror.  This,  however,  he 
insisted  upon  having  back.  Finally  the  ex- 
amining officer,  Major  Lord  George  Stewart 

61 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Murray,  became  suspicious  and  decided  that 
the  Boche's  sentiment  was  not  on  the  level. 
He  stripped  the  photograph  off  the  back. 
Under  it  he  found  a  thin  sort  of  skin  and, 
underneath  that,  pasted  to  the  back^of  it, 
a  paper  covered  with  writing.  He  returned 
the  mirror  to  the  German  officer,  but  he 
retained  the  paper;  and  the  writing  gave 
the  staff  much  satisfaction. 

All  night  long  we  were  troubled  by  similar 
parties  of  Uhlans.  They  were  evidently  feel- 
ing out  for  an  attack,  but,  not  being  able  to 
gauge  our  strength,  they  never  made  it. 
Some  of  our  boys  crawled  out  from*  the 
trenches  to  rescue  a  trooper  with  a  broken 
leg,  and  they  said  that  only  a  few  paces 
away  they  could  not  distinguish  the  trench 
or  tell  how  many  men  were  there.  If  the 
Uhlans  had  only  known  the  facts  they  could 
have  swarmed  over  us.  In  the  morning  we 
collected  souvenirs  from  the  field.  One  of  the 
fellows  picked  up  a  lance  with  two  bullet  holes 
clean  through  the  steel  tubing  shaft. 

Our  next  stop  was  at  Nesles.  We  drew  up 
alongside  a  field  of  beets  just  before  going 
into  the  village,  and  most  of  the  men  fell  out 

62 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

of  ranks  and  lay  down  alongside  the  road. 
Some  were  in  the  ploughed  earth  between  the 
rows  of  beets.  The  artillery  had  been  firing 
at  us  most  of  the  day,  but  they  hadn't  found 
the  range.  There  were  some  heavy  guns 
hammering  at  us,  as  we  could  tell  from  the 
explosions  of  the  shells. 

As  usual,  when  it  came  time  for  a  rest, 
the  Germans  began  to  locate  us.  One  of 
the  heaviest  shells  I  had  yet  seen  exploded 
in  the  field  and  scattered  beets  all  over  the 
surrounding  country.  A  member  of  our  com- 
pany right  near  me  was  stunned  for  a  few 
seconds. 

Before  any  one  had  recovered  himself 
enough  to  go  to  his  aid,  he  sat  up  unsteadily, 
his  head  wobbling,  his  face  a  mass  of  red. 
A  few  yards  behind  him  was  his  forage  cap. 
He  put  his  shaking  hand  up  to  his  head; 
withdrew  it,  then  looked  at  his  fingers  which 
were  dripping  red. 

"Ah  weel,  lads,  Ah've  got  it  noo!"  he 
lamented.  "Ah'm  sair-r-r-tainly  din  fur 
'cause  Ah  dinna  feel  a  theng.  Ah  on'y 
wesh  Ah  could  'a  got  ane  o'  the  deevils 
tae  me  credit  afore  this!" 

63 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

By  this  time  two  or  three  of  us  had  run 
forward  and  were  wiping  his  head  and  face. 
There  was  no  evidence  of  a  wound.  Then 
suddenly  some  one  roared  with  laughter.  The 
man  was  covered  with  the  red  juice  of  beets 
and  was  entirely  unhurt.  He  had  only  been 
stunned.  This  is  the  way  Mars  jests.  His 
humour  is  always  mixed  with  grimness. 

We  learned  that  we  were  to  stop  at  Nesles 
overnight,  and  this,  coupled  with  the  fact 
that  we  had  commenced  advancing,  put  new 
enthusiasm  into  us. 

Before  we  arrived  there  were  large  vine- 
yards at  each  side  of  the  road  leading  up 
a  hill  overlooking  a  beautiful  little  town,  on 
the  south  bank  of  the  Petit  Morin  River. 
We  had  a  few  minutes'  halt  within  reach 
of  the  lovely  French  grapes,  which  hung  most 
temptingly  in  clusters,  so  it  was  quite  natural 
that  some  of  the  boys  who  were  extremely 
thirsty  and  warm  from  the  scorching  sun, 
should  partake  of  this  inviting  fruit. 

Discipline  in  the  British  army  is  second  to 
none;  and  we  were  commanded  to  observe 
it  strictly  while  on  the  retreat.  One  of  our 
orders  was  "not  to  pluck  fruit,"  as  it  came 

64 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

under  the  category  of  "Looting."  Very  soon 
the  few  fellows  who  had  disobeyed  that  order 
were  rolling  on  the  ground,  holding  their 
stomachs.  Later  we  were  told  that  the 
grapes  on  both  sides  of  the  road  had  been 
poisoned  by  the  Germans.  This  was  punish- 
ment enough  for  those  who  had  eaten  the 
fruit,  and  a  lesson  that  every  one  of  us 
"took  home." 


65 


'CHAPTER  FIVE 

AS  WE — the  other  scouts  and  I — ad- 
vanced, firing  details,  which  had  been 
left  behind  under  close  cover  by  the 
Germans,  did  a  good  deal  of  execution  amongst 
us.  The  hay-stacks,  particularly,  gave  us  a 
great  deal  of  trouble.  More  than  once,  one 
of  them  would  be  disrupted  as  though  by 
some  sort  of  explosion  from  the  inside,  and 
machine  guns  would  begin  spraying  our 
skirmishing  lines.  So  it  became  an  important 
part  of  our  scouting  operations  to  search 
all  hay-stacks  and  farm  houses.  And  con- 
tinually we  were  under  what,  ordinarily, 
would  be  termed  heavy  fire. 

The  ground  over  which  we  were  passing 
had  been  the  scene  of  sharp  fighting,  earlier. 
We  came  across  scores  of  dead  Germans  and 
a  few  French.  In  the  midst  of  a  field  dotted 
with  a  particularly  large  number  of  hay- 
stacks was  a  farm  house.  When  we  were 
about  thirty  or  forty  yards  from  it  and  on 

66 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

opposite  sides,  we  leaped  up  and  dashed 
toward  it  as  hard  as  we  could  run.  It  is  a 
fact  that  this  is  the  safest  way  for  patrols 
to  approach  a  house.  If  any  of  the  enemy 
are  inside,  they  become  excited  when  they 
see  men  rushing  toward  them  and  are  likely 
to  open  fire — instead  of  waiting  until  the 
scouts  get  inside  and  then  killing  them 
noiselessly.  Their  aim  is  also  more  uncer- 
tain at  a  running  man  than  it  is  at  one 
sneaking  along  slowly,  and,  most  important 
of  all,  whether  the  scouts  are  killed  or  not, 
the  noise  of  the  rifle  fire  alarms  the  main 
body  and  the  party  in  the  house  is  detected. 
Troolan  (my  scout  partner)  and  I  arrived 
at  this  particular  farm  house  on  a  dead  run 
without  having  drawn  any  fire  or  detected 
the  least  sign  of  life.  We  tried  all  the  doors; 
they  were  locked.  The  windows,  too,  were 
bolted  from  the  inside.  Troolan  smashed  one 
in,  got  inside,  and  opened  the  door  for  me. 
We  searched  the  building  rather  hurriedly 
and  discovered  no  sign  of  any  one  having 
been  there.  Just  as  we  were  going  out, 
I  had  a  premonition  that  I  ought  to  look 
further. 

67 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

"Wait  outside  and  watch,"  I  said  to 
Troolan,  "and  I  will  take  another  look 
around. " 

He  posted  himself  outside.  Very  cau- 
tiously I  stepped  down  the  cellar  stairs. 
The  boards  seemed  to  squeak  and  groan 
like  a  lumbering  farm  wagon.  It  was  dark 
as  pitch,  but  I  did  not  dare  to  make  a  light. 
It  would  have  been  fatal  if  any  one  really 
was  lurking  there.  Something  scurried  across 
the  floor.  I  felt  the  hot  blood  surge  under 
my  scalp.  For  a  second  I  expected  to  see  a 
red  flash  in  the  utter  darkness  and  feel  a 
bullet  smash  into  my  body.  Then  I  dis- 
covered that  it  was  only  a  rat. 

I  thought  I  heard  breathing.  I  stood 
stock  still,  and  strained  my  eyes  on  every 
side  till  they  ached  as  if  they  would  burst 
from  their  sockets.  I  was  trying  to  catch 
the  reflection  of  some  stray  beam  of  light 
from  the  eyes  of  a  man  or  the  barrel  of  an 
automatic,  but  I  do  not  believe  that  so 
much  as  a  pin  point  of  light  was  diffused  in 
that  whole  black  pit.  Suddenly  I  almost 
laughed  aloud,  although  I  knew  that  to  do 
so  might  mean  instant  death.  The  breathing 

68 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

that  I  heard  was  my  own.  Cautiously  I 
thrust  out  my  foot  to  descend  another  step. 

There  was  a  shout  outside. 

"Run  to  the  door  quickly,"  Troolan  was 
yelling. 

I  leaped  up  the  stairway  regardless  of 
what  might  be  behind  me  and  dashed  toward 
the  kitchen  door  to  get  outside  the  house. 
Just  as  I  did  so,  I  saw  a  shadow  flit  along 
the  ground  past  the  kitchen  window.  Guess- 
ing where  the  man  must  be  who  cast  it,  I 
fired  through  the  wooden  wall  of  the  kitchen 
at  about  the  height  of  the  average  man's 
breast.  Then  in  a  couple  of  bounds  I  was 
outside.  There  stood  Troolan  looking  very 
much  surprised  and  grieved  when  he  saw 
me.  His  rifle  was  half  drawn  up  to  his 
shoulder,  and  he  was  in  the  attitude  of 
getting  ready  to  fire. 

Perspiration  broke  out  on  my  forehead.  I 
realised  that  the  shadow  had  been  Troolan's 
and  from  the  look  of  him  I  had  come  very 
nigh  to  killing  him. 

"What  the  h was  that  for,  ye  muckle 

galoot?"  he  threw  at  me. 

"I  saw  a  shadow,"  I  said,  "and  let  drive." 
69 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

'Ye're  an  auld  wife,  that's  what  ye*  are," 
said  Troolan  disgustedly,  "a'firin'  after 
shadows. " 

"Never  mind  now,"  I  said,  "what  did  you 
see?" 

"I  saw  a  big  boche,"  said  my  scouting 
partner,  "or,  at  least,  I  thocht  I  did.  Maybe 
I've  been  takin*  you  fur  him  the  same  as 
you  did  me." 

"Maybe,"  I  said,  "but  the  best  plan  is 
for  you  to  watch  this  house  while  I  go  and 
report. " 

"All  right,"  said  Troolan.  I  started  away. 
I  had  not  gone  a  dozen  paces  when  I  heard 
scuffling  behind  me.  I  turned  round  and 
started  to  run  back  at  the  same  instant. 
What  I  saw  lent  speed  to  my  feet.  The 
helmet  of  a  German  officer  was  just  coming 
through  a  window.  Troolan,  who  had  evi- 
dently been  concealed  from  the  German's 
view,  was  aiming  a  blow  at  his  head  with  the 
butt  of  his  rifle. 

As  usual,  Troolan  had  lacked  finesse.  He 
had  rushed  so  clumsily  to  the  attack  that 
both  the  officer  and  I  had  heard  him.  The 
German  dodged  just  in  time  to  evade  the 

70 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

blow,  and  Troolan's  rifle  banged  the  window 
sill. 

How  the  boche  did  it,  I  do  not  know,  but 
it  seemed  as  though  he  was  propelled  by 
strong  steel  springs  under  his  feet.  He  fairly 
shot  out  of  the  window  like  a  dart  from  a 
catapult  and  landed  on  Troolan's  neck.  Both 
men  went  down.  I  dared  not  fire.  They 
were  rolling  over  and  over  one  another, 
kicking  and  striking  with  their  fists.  The 
boche  was  fouling  Troolan  in  a  way  that 
would  be  prohibited  in  wrestling.  I  jumped 
into  the  fray  and  tried  to  find  the  German's 
throat,  but  the  men  were  so  entwined  that 
it  was  hard  to  get  a  hold  on  him.  Suddenly 
a  heavy  boot  struck  me  in  the  pit  of  the 
stomach,  and  I  rolled  over  and  over  to  find 
myself  gasping  for  breath  a  dozen  feet  away. 

Painfully  I  got  up  and  staggered  toward 
the  struggling  men,  but  I  was  too  late  to  be 
of  any  use.  After  a  particularly  frantic 
struggle  Troolan  managed  to  get  on  top  of 
his  adversary,  with  his  right  arm  free.  His 
mighty  fist  came  smashing  down  full  in  the 
other's  face.  The  German  staggered  to  his 
feet,  but  Troolan  leaped  clear  of  him,  seized 

71 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

his  rifle,  and,  this  time,  brought  the  butt 
down  with  a  thud  on  the  other's  skull. 
Then  Troolan  burst  into  some  of  the  most 
profane  Scotch  it  has  been  my  doubtful 
privilege  to  hear. 

"What  are  you  cursing  about?"  I  asked 
him. 

"I  want  to  mak  shair  that  Deevil's  deed!" 
he  said. 

Later  that  day  we  were  relieved  by  other 
scouts. 

Toward  nightfall  troops  began  to  arrive 
on  either  side  of  us  in  great  numbers,  and 
dispatch  riders  with  various  insignia  con- 
tinually dashed  up  on  their  speedy  motor- 
cycles to  our  brigade  headquarters.  Every- 
one realized  that  we  must  be  approaching 
something  big,  for  previous  to  this  we  had 
been  fighting,  for  the  most  part,  isolated 
engagements.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  devel- 
oped that  we  were  preparing  for  the  Battle 
of  the  Marne. 

We  remained  at  this  spot  all  night.  At 
dawn,  orders  were  given  that  we  were  to 
take  the  high  ground  the  Germans  were 

72 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

occupying  a  few  miles  ahead  of  us.  Our 
brigade  marched  in  skirmishing  order,  fol- 
lowed by  the  cavalry  and  artillery.  We 
passed  scores  of  dead — some  French  but 
the  majority  German.  Dead  horses  were 
intermingled  with  the  bodies  of  men. 

We  were  under  heavy  shell  fire  until  we 
descended  into  the  shelter  of  a  gully.  <  Here 
we  met  a  few  of  the  French  Chasseurs.  Four 
or  five  farms  were  clustered  together,  'and 
the  sights  we  encountered  in  the  yards  and 
on  the  roads  were  the  worst  we  had  yet 
seen.  Pools  of  congealed  blood;  bodies  of 
dead  soldiers  partly  covered  with  sacks  and 
straw;  the  barns  so  filled  that  the  feet  of 
dead  men  were  protruding.  The  Chasseurs 
appeared  very  pale  and  silent. 

The  ridge  was  densely  covered  with  hazel- 
wood.  We  got  the  command  to  fix  bayonets 
and  extend  into  skirmishing  formation.  The 
Black  Watch  with  the  Camerons  were  to 
take  the  ridge,  while  the  Coldstreams  and 
Scots  Guards  were  to  be  in  reserve. 

An  incident  occurred  during  the  ascent 
of  the  ridge  which  illustrated  the  reckless, 
devil-may-care  spirit  of  the  men  in  our 

73 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

battalion  in  a  way  which  impressed  even 
me.  The  front-line  men  came  upon  a  lot 
of  blackberry  bushes.  They  began  pluck- 
ing and  eating  the  berries,  shouting  gleefully 
to  one  another  to  signal  the  discovery  of 
an  especially  well-laden  bush.  Until  the 
officers  sternly  warned  them  of  the  peril 
they  invited  by  such  noise  and  incaution, 
you  would  have  thought  they  were  school- 
boys on  a  lark. 

I  was  one  of  the  scouts  sent  up  the  ridge 
to  try  to  locate  the  position  and  number  of  the 
enemy  and  report  at  once.  Wriggling  along 
on  my  belly  like  a  snake,  I  made  my  way 
foot  by  foot.  I  could  hear  our  fellows  shout- 
ing, and  it  rather  disconcerted  me  as  I  felt 
they  would  attract  the  enemy's  attention, 
but  I  continued  on  my  way  nevertheless. 

I  never  knew  that  so  many  sharp  stones 
could  be  scattered  in  so  short  a  distance. 
It  seemed  as  though  some  of  them  were 
forcing  themselves  clean  in  between  my  ribs. 

Presently  I  came  to  a  hastily  constructed 
barbed-wire  entanglement  at  the  edge  of  a 
thicket.  Ahead  of  me  was  a  clear  rising 
space  of  about  fifty  yards  which  did  not 

74 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

show  from  below.  Beyond  this  was  a  pla- 
teau. Before  advancing  farther  I  peered 
through  the  thicket  and  scanned  the  crest. 

Suddenly  I  heard  a  familiar,  unmistakable 
rattling.  It  was  the  opening  and  closing  of 
rifle  bolts.  My  skin  prickled  all  over.  I 
knew  that  it  meant  troops  getting  ready 
to  fire  and  I  had  no  doubt  the  Germans  had 
discovered  me  and  were  preparing  to  shoot. 
I  wriggled  backward  a  few  feet  into  the 
thicket,  expecting  every  second  to  hear  the 
crash  of  a  volley  and  to  pass  into  oblivion. 
But  the  crash  did  not  come.  Evidently 
they  had  not  seen  me. 

Under  cover  of  the  underbrush  I  crept 
forward  again  until  I  could  see  the  helmets 
of  German  troops  in  the  woods  atop  of  the 
ridge.  They  outnumbered  our  troops.  I 
crawled  to  the  left  until  I  came  to  a  point 
where  I  could  command  a  view  of  the  crest, 
where  they  were  in  waiting,  but  apparently 
unaware  of  our  near  approach.  I  crawled 
back  until  I  was  out  of  sight.  Then  I  leaped 
to  my  feet  and  ran  as  if  I  were  once  more 
on  a  cinder  track  in  the  old  barrack  days. 
Brambles  tore  my  hands  and  face  and 

75 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

lacerated  my  bare  knees,  but  I  did  not  heed 
them. 

I  had  seen  enough,  and  the  sooner  we  could 
make  the  attack  the  better.  Besides,  they 
might  even  yet  see  me,  and  I  preferred  the 
scratching  of  brambles  to  the  bite  of  a  steel 
bullet. 

In  safety  I  got  back  to  our  lines.  The 
boys  could  see  from  my  excitement  that 
something  was  up. 

"Did  you  find  them,  Joe?"  they  shouted. 

"Where  is  the  adjutant?"  I  demanded. 
Somebody  told  me,  and  I  hurried  to  him. 

"How  many  of  them  are  there?"  he  asked 
when  I  told  what  I  had  seen. 

"All  I  can  say,  sir,  is  that  they  outnum- 
ber us  and  are  waiting,"  I  answered 

Orders  were  given  for  an  immediate  attack. 

I  went  forward  again,  but  this  time  in  my 
own  place  in  the  company,  with  men  either 
side  of  me,  and  with  real  business  ahead. 
We  made  our  way  in  silence  through  the 
woods  toward  the  terrace.  Still  the  Germans 
did  not  fire.  We  wondered  whether  they 
were  really  unaware  of  our  approach,  or, 
just  holding  their  fire  for  close  range?  This 

76 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

was  the  first  time  we  had  been  in  a  big  attack 
of  this  kind  and  we  knew  that  bayonet  work 
would  be  the  end  of  it. 

The  answer  to  our  questioning  soon  came. 
It  was  in  the  form  of  a  burst  of  fire  from 
the  ridge  above  us.  Twigs  fell  all  around 
us  and  here  and  there  a  man  dropped  too. 

We  could  not  do  much  in  the  way  of 
returning  the  fire,  for  we  had  not  yet  reached 
the  open.  The  blood  was  pounding  through 
my  arteries.  I  felt  much  as  I  used  to  before 
the  start  of  an  important  race.  The  second 
platoon  to  my  right  went  forward,  while 
our  fire  covered  their  advance.  Crouching 
low,  the  men  dashed  on  at  full  speed.  Here 
and  there  one  of  them  toppled  backward. 
Then  the  platoon  nearest  to  us  advanced. 
It  would  be  our  turn  next.  We  ceased  firing 
and  prepared  to  rush.  Our  lieutenant  looked 
at  the  commander,  whose  whistle  had  just 
blown  a  shrill  blast.  He  signalled  for  us 
to  go  forward. 

Like  one  man,  we  leaped  to  our  feet.  The 
thin  line  swept  out  onto  the  open  terrace. 
Each  man  had  but  one  friend  then,  his 
rifle  with  the  bayonet  fixed. 

77 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

We  had  arrived  at  the  point  where  I  had 
previously  encountered  the  barbed  wire. 
Throwing  ourselves  flat  on  the  ground,  we 
returned  the  enemy's  fire.  After  cutting  the 
barbed-wire,  we  awaited  orders.  The  word 
came  to  charge.  With  one  mighty  shout, 
we  made  for  the  crest.  When  one  goes  out 
with  the  bayonet  he  goes  to  kill  or  to  be 
killed,  but  with  the  former  in  mind. 

The  German  fire  thundered  out  as  though 
it  had  been  tripled.  The  trees  and  bushes 
were  cut  as  by  scythes,  but  they  were  only 
shooting  in  a  direction — they  could  not  see 
us  clearly.  Up,  up  we  went.  Loose  stones 
rattled  under  our  feet,  and  went  tumbling 
down  the  slope,  but  we  picked  ourselves 
up  and  pushed  always  forward  and  upward. 
At  last  we  saw  the  Germans  who  were  firing 
at  us  over  their  trenches.  Our  men  were 
yelling  like  demons. 

Then  the  German  fire  stopped  as  though 
every  man  had,  on  the  instant,  been  struck 
dead.  An  instant  later,  they  leaped  out  of 
their  trenches,  with  bayonets  fixed,  and  dashed 
toward  us.  Every  man  among  them  looked 
a  giant.  One  of  our  boys  was  ahead  of  all 

78 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

the  others.  He  was  a  bow-legged  little  fellow, 
and,  even  at  that  moment,  he  looked  ludi- 
crous with  his  bare  knees  and  kilts.  A  big 
German  was  over  him.  The  little  fellow 
seemed  to  drop  his  rifle.  He  had  caught 
it  in  both  hands,  close  under  the  handle  of 
the  bayonet.  He  straightened  up,  heaving 
his  shoulders,  brought  up  his  forearms  with 
a  jerk,  and  the  steel  blade  drove  through 
the  soft  spot  in  the  German's  throat — just 
under  the  chin.  The  Prussian's  last  cry  was 
drowned  by  the  fierce  yell  of  the  little  bow- 
legged  man.  It  was  the  spirit  of  the  bayonet 
which  made  him  yell  like  a  savage. 

There  was  no  time  to  see  what  was  going 
on  around  me  any  more.  We  were  fighting 
knee  to  knee.  I  can  but  faintly  recall  the 
actual  close  fighting,  but  I  seemed  to  make 
good  use  of  my  bayonet.  Sometimes  I  was 
knocked  off  my  feet,  but  the  next  instant 
I  was  up  again.  I  was  not  thinking  of  what 
might  happen  to  me.  It  was  fight,  fight, 
and  keep  on  fighting.  One  seemed  imbued 
with  a  superhuman  strength. 

One  of  our  boys  seized  a  German's  rifle, 
and  wrested  it  from  him  by  a  trick  which 

79 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

seemed  to  break  his  arm.  A  little  farther 
away  two  Germans  were  rushing  upon  one 
man.  Mechanically,  I  leaped  into  action. 
The  butt  of  my  rifle  felled  the  nearest  boche. 
Somebody  knocked  the  rifle  out  of  my  hands. 
Somehow  I  ducked  a  thrust  made  at  me  and 
ran  in  on  the  German  who  made  it,  and 
smashed  my  fist  on  the  point  of  his  jaw.t 

They  began  to  waver  now.  They  did  not 
seem  to  care  for  our  company  with  our  kilts 
and  our  steel — we  whom  they  later  learned 
to  call  the  "Ladies  of  Hell."  (Because  of 
our  kilts.)  At  last  they  broke  and  ran. 
We  were  after  them.  A  machine  gun  rattled 
away  at  the  head  of  a  path  down  which 
some  of  our  boys  were  dashing.  It  almost 
wiped  out  B  company  before  we  could 
silence  it. 

Just  over  the  crest  of  the  ridge  we  came 
upon  their  combat  wagons  and  a  field  gun. 
Three  men  and  an  officer  were  trying  to 
save  the  gun.  The  men  who  were  hitching 
the  horses  to  it  broke  and  ran.  The  officer 
did  not  hesitate  a  second  to  shoot  them  in 
the  backs.  Then  he  fell  with  one  of  our  bullets 
through  his  head.  We  captured  the  gun. 

80 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

By  this  time  I  was  regaining  my  proper 
senses.  A  feeling  of  exhaustion  seemed  to 
envelop  me;  my  legs  wobbled.  Then  I 
dropped  to  the  ground.  Every  bone,  muscle, 
and  nerve  ached,  and  I  felt  as  though 
I  had  just  been  through  a  tough  wrestling 
match. 

When  we  had  counted  up,  we  found  that 
two  company  officers,  Captain  Drummond 
and  Captain  Dalgleish,  had  been  killed.  We 
picked  up  about  fifty  German  rifles  and  broke 
them  over  the  trunks  of  trees.  Our  casualties 
were  one  hundred  and  fifty  killed  and  only 
God  knows  how  many  wounded. 

Our  prisoners  amounted  to  about  one  hun- 
dred and  forty .  Among  them  was  a  man  who 
had  worked  in  London  as  a  watchmaker.  In 
very  broken  English,  he  asked  if  he  could  get 
his  job  back  if  he  were  sent  to  London.  We 
told  him  that  he  would  get  a  job  all  right,  but 
that  somebody  else  would  see  to  the  watch- 
making. 

After  capturing  the  crest,  upon  looking 
from  the  far  side,  we  could  see  great  numbers 
of  German  cavalry  and  infantry  in  retreat. 
The  plateau  was  strewn  with  I  should  judge 

81 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

about  five  hundred  dead  bodies  of  the  enemy. 
Their  horses  that  had  been  wounded  were  left 
behind — left  to  die.  We  let  go  a  few  volleys 
of  long-range  fire  to  hurry  the  boches  on  their 
way. 


CHAPTER  SIX 

WE  had  very  little  rest  after  the  fight  I 
have  just  described.  We  were  get- 
ting down  to  the  real  business  of  war. 
It  was  fighting,  and  not  the  incessant  re- 
treating, which  had  been  sapping  the  life  out 
of  us  for  weeks.  You  must  remember,  also, 
the  weight  that  each  man  carried  during  all 
those  long  wearisome  retreats.  Each  of  us 
had  his  heavily  plaited  kilt;  his  pack  contain- 
ing great  coat,  flannel  shirt,  two  pairs  of  socks, 
waterproof  sheet,  extra  shoes,  and  towel;  his 
canteen,  rifle,  entrenching  tool,  bayonet,  and 
ammunition  —  the  whole  totalling  ninety 
pounds  weight. 

Immediately  after  the  fight,  in  shallow, 
narrow  trenches,  we  began  to  bury  our  dead. 
Before  the  work  was  finished,  a  detachment 
of  Uhlans  fired  on  us,  but  one  of  our  com- 
panies drove  them  across  a  rivulet  and  over 
the  crest  of  the  next  ridge. 

One  of  our  pipers — Dougall  McLeod  was 
83 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

his  name — had  lost  his  chum  in  the  fight. 
McLeod  was  a  sentimental  sort  of  chap,  with 
little  heart  for  the  work  of  killing.  He  was 
sitting  on  the  ground  fastening  together  a 
couple  of  strips  of  wood  to  make  a  little  cross 
for  his  chum's  grave — or  rather  his  chum's 
share  of  the  one  long  grave.  The  tears  were 
trickling  down  his  grimy,  bloody  cheeks,  and 
he  wasn't  ashamed  of  them,  nor  of  the  furrows 
they  cut  in  the  caked  dirt.  It  was  just  before 
he  finished  his  work  that  the  Uhlans  opened 
fire.  McLeod  threw  the  loose  pieces  of  the 
cross  to  the  ground,  and  sprang  to  his  place 
in  the  firing  line.  I  had  never  seen  the  pas- 
sion of  hate  in  his  eyes  before.  All  that  the 
Germans  had  made  him  suffer  had  never 
aroused  him,  but  now  that  they  interrupted 
him  in  the  work  of  making  a  homely  mark 
for  his  friend's  grave,  he  was  fired  by  the 
will  to  kill.  I  was  only  a  few  paces  from  him 
in  the  firing  line,  and,  with  the  tears  still 
streaming  down  his  face,  I  could  hear  him 
mutter  every  time  his  rifle  crashed: 
"Damn  you!  You  will,  will  you?" 
We  again  took  to  the  road.  All  that  day 
we  marched  under  occasional  shell  fire.  Along 

84 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

the  sides  of  the  roads,  we  passed  the  wrecks 
of  scores  of  German  combat  wagons  and  sup- 
ply trains.  Sometimes  there  was  a  field  piece 
amid  the  debris.  Toward  evening  we  heard 
terrific  firing  on  our  right,  but  we  were  not 
called  to  enter  the  engagement.  Later  we 
learned  that  a  French  division  had  been 
pretty  badly  cut  up  in  running  the  boches 
out  of  a  strong  position. 

Their  wounded  passed  us  on  the  road. 
You  cannot  imagine  a  more  pitiful  or  a  more 
noble  sight.  Limping  along,  supported  by 
their  comrades,  came  scores  of  men,  whose 
every  step  was  costing  them  agony  but  who 
smiled  at  us  as  we  cheered  them.  Straggling 
down  the  road,  as  we  swung  along,  came 
groups  of  wounded,  each  supporting  the  other 
as  best  he  could.  In  one  case  in  particular,  a 
man  who  had  been  badly  maimed  and  was 
using  his  rifle  as  a  crutch,  was  also  supported 
by  a  comrade  who  had  been  blinded.  If 
there  had  ever  been  doubt  in  our  minds  as 
to  the  mettle  of  our  allies,  it  was  dispelled 
now,  as  the  lame  and  the  blind  hour  after  hour 
filed  past  us. 

We  billeted  that  night  at  a  place,  the  name 
85 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

of  which  sounded  like  Villers.  I  remember 
that  a  detachment  of  French  were  there  before 
us,  and  a  peasant  pointed  out  to  me  a  row  of 
trees  where  they  had  hung  fifteen  Germans 
captured  there,  because,  when  the  Uhlans  had 
taken  the  town  fifteen  of  them  had  brutally 
assaulted  and  outraged  a  farmer's  wife  and 
his  daughter,  twelve  years  of  age.  The  ropes 
were  still  dangling  from  the  trees. 

Volunteers  were  asked  for,  to  go  down  and 
get  the  mail.  Practically  every  one  offered 
his  services.  To  get  mail  from  home  gave  the 
same  sensation  as  scoring  a  victory,  and  we 
were  all  eager  to  do  our  bit.  This  was  about 
10.30  P.M.  and  the  rain  was  coming  down  in 
torrents.  About  two  miles  behind  us  lay  the 
mail  strewn  around  the  road.  The  ambulance 
carrying  it  had  been  struck  by  a  shell.  Our 
volunteer  mail  carriers  gathered  the  letters 
up,  and,  needless  to  say,  there  was  much  ex- 
citement among  us  on  their  arrival.  Nothing 
else  was  thought  of  for  the  moment  except 
the  news  from  home. 

The  next  few  days  were  uneventful.  To- 
ward evening  on  the  thirteenth  of  September, 
I  was  scouting  on  our  left  flank.  The  German 

86 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

heavy  guns  had  been  keeping  up  a  steady 
searching  fire  all  day,  but  little  damage  had 
been  done. 

I  had  got  so  accustomed  to  the  roar  of  the 
explosions  that  they  did  not  bother  me  very 
much.  After  a  while  a  man  gets  so  used  to 
the  sound  of  a  shrieking  shell  in  the  air  that 
he  can  tell  by  instinct  when  one  is  coming 
his  way  in  time  to  throw  himself  flat  on  the 
ground.  I  had  not  yet  reached  this  stage  of 
proficiency.  A  shell  did  come  my  way.  How 
close  it  came  I  will  never  know,  because  all 
of  a  sudden  I  felt  as  though  my  head  were 
bursting.  I  seemed  to  be  tumbling  end  over 
end  and  being  torn  to  pieces.  My  ear  drums 
rang  and  pained  excruciatingly.  I  thought 
to  myself  "I  am  dying,"  and  I  wondered  how 
I  kept  feeling  a  sort  of  consciousness  although 
I  must  be  already  torn  to  bits. 

Then  I  found  myself  sitting  up  on  the 
ground  with  a  man  from  my  patrol  support- 
ing my  head. 

Now,  this  is  the  strange  thing.  I  was  in- 
stantly and  absolutely  oblivious  when  the  shell 
exploded.  All  the  sensations  I  have  described 
came  when  I  was  recovering  consciousness. 

87 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Surgeons  have  told  me  since  then  that  they 
were  exactly  what  the  shell  caused  when  it 
exploded,  but  that  my  brain  did  not  register 
them  until  my  senses  returned.  My  clothes 
were  scorched  and  even  my  hair  was  singed. 
I  do  not  know  why  I  was  not  killed,  but  in  a 
few  hours  I  was  ready  for  duty  once  more. 
The  man  who  picked  me  up  said  that  the  shell 
had  burst  some  little  distance  overhead.  If 
it  had  struck  the  ground  close  to  me,  it 
would  doubtless  have  sent  me  "west." 

The  game  had  now  been  turned  about. 
We  were  the  pursuers.  Most  of  the  fighting 
was  between  the  enemy's  rear  guard  and  our 
contact  patrols — until  we  reached  the  Aisne. 
The  Huns  crossed  the  river,  but  they  blew 
up  the  bridges  behind  them.  The  last  of  the 
retreating  troops  were  scarcely  across  before 
the  detonators  were  set  off. 

We  were  held  up  for  a  while  on  the  Aisne 
while  our  engineers  constructed  pontoon 
bridges.  The  Germans  had  the  range,  and 
they  almost  wiped  out  our  entire  battalion 
of  engineers  before  our  troops  could  cross. 

I  saw  a  working  raft  swing  out  into  the 
river  with  about  twelve  men  on  it.  A  single 

88 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

burst  of  shrapnel  exploded  in  their  midst  and 
there  wasn't  a  man  left  standing.  One  of 
them  crawled  to  the  stern  and  began  pushing 
the  raft  toward  shore  with  a  pole  but  he  was 
so  weak  that  the  current  kept  swinging  him 
down  a  stream.  A  sniper  got  him. 

The  raft  was  drifting  away.  Nobody  ex- 
pected to  see  the  men  on  it  again,  but,  in  the 
face  of  shrapnel  and  a  nasty  fire  from  snipers, 
three  men,  stark  naked,  jumped  into  the 
stream  and  struck  out  for  the  raft.  The 
water  around  them  was  whipped  by  bullets, 
but  our  boys  located  the  snipers  and  got  the 
range  and  quieted  them.  The  first  man 
reached  the  raft.  His  hands  were  over  the 
edge.  He  had  just  pushed  his  head  and 
shoulders  over  the  side  when  a  rifle  snapped 
and  he  slipped  back  into  the  water;  then  I 
saw  the  German  who  had  fired  at  him  topple 
out  of  a  tree.  A  dozen  shots  must  have 
struck  him.  The  two  other  swimmers  were 
alongside  the  raft  now  and  climbed  upon  it. 
I  could  see  that  one  was  bleeding  at  the 
shoulder.  Our  men  pulled  the  wounded  man 
upon  the  raft,  and  brought  it  to  shore.  Their 
heroism  saved  the  lives  of  five  men  who  other- 
89 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

wise  would  have  drifted  away  and  probably 
died. 

Soon  our  own  artillery  began  to  locate  the 
German  guns,  whose  fire  diminished.  Then 
our  infantry  began  to  cross  the  river  at  a 
dozen  points.  On  the  opposite  bank  was  a 
village  by  the  name  of  Bourg.  Up  and  down 
hills  we  worked  our  way,  forcing  the  enemy 
off  the  ridges.  The  details  of  the  operations 
would  not  be  of  interest.  We  wanted  to  close 
with  the  bayonets,  but  the  boches  weren't 
ready  for  that,  and  they  dropped  back  foot 
by  foot,  keeping  up  a  hot  fire. 

On  this  side  of  the  river  were  numerous 
stone  quarries,  and  in  these  we  found  tons  and 
tons  of  ammunition  for  the  heavy  German 
guns.  The  type  and  manufacturers'  marks 
showed  that  some  of  it  was  made  as  far  back 
as  the  Franco-Prussian  war.  It  had  been 
lying  in  caches  in  the  quarries  for  years,  the 
Prussians  having  bought  titles  to  some  of  the 
land  through  spies  who  posed  as  Frenchmen. 
They  had  been  making  use  of  this  ammuni- 
tion against  us.  It  shows  how  long  ago  the 
war  was  planned  and  by  whom.  In  some  of 
the  quarries  we  uncovered  re-enforced  con- 

90 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

crete  fortification  and  emplacements  for  can- 
non. 

Our  commander,  Colonel  Grant  Duff,  was 
in  the  thickest  of  the  fighting.  I  saw  him 
distributing  bandoliers  of  ammunition  along 
the  firing  line.  His  men  tried  to  make  him  go 
to  the  rear,  but  we  were  having  a  tough  time 
to  keep  fire  superiority,  and  we  needed  every 
man  in  the  line.  Suddenly  Colonel  Duff 
staggered  and  slouched  forward  on  his  hands 
and  knees.  The  bandoliers  he  was  carrying, 
scattered.  Several  men  rushed  to  him  but 
he  got  to  his  feet  himself  and  ordered  them 
back  to  their  posts.  An  ugly  red  stain  was 
spreading  over  his  tartan  riding  breeches  and 
leggings,  but  he  staggered  onward  with  the 
ammunition.  He  had  not  gone  a  dozen  steps 
when  both  his  arms  flew  up  into  the  air 
and  he  fell  backward.  This  time  he  did  not 
move.  He  had  been  shot  straight  through 
the  heart,  and  another  commander  of  the 
Black  Watch  had  gone  to  join  the  long  line 
of  heroes  who  had  so  often  led  this  regiment 
to  victory. 

Many  of  our  company  commanders  were 
picked  off  by  the  enemy  because  of  their  dis- 

91 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

tinctive  dress,  their  celluloid  map  cases  af- 
fording excellent  targets. 

My  memory  of  this  fight  is  somewhat  frag- 
mentary. There  are  phases  which  are  all  but 
blanks  to  me.  Others  stand  out  with  startling 
clarity. 

We  were  advancing  in  skirmishing  order 
through  a  wood.  A  pal  of  my  old  athletic 

days,  Ned  McD ,  fighting  a  few  yards  from 

me  in  our  scattered  line,  fell  with  a  bullet 
through  both  thighs.  I  made  him  as  comfort- 
able as  I  could  in  a  nook  about  twenty  paces 
back  from  where  our  men,  lying  on  their 
stomachs,  were  keeping  up  a  steady  rifle  fire 
through  the  underbrush.  I  had  hardly  re- 
turned to  the  line  when  the  whistle  of  our 
platoon  commander  sounded  shrilly,  and  we 
were  ordered  to  retire  to  the  farther  edge  of 
the  plateau,  where  our  men  could  have  better 
protection  from  the  enemy  fire.  I  hurriedly 

placed  McD under  the  edge  of  a  bank, 

where,  at  least,  he  would  not  be  trampled  on 
by  men  or  horses. 

"Don't  attempt  to  leave  the  spot,  Ned," 
I  said.  "I'll  get  back  to  you  to-night  if  there's 
an  opportunity."  The  chance  did  come,  but 

92 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

when  I  reached  the  spot  he  had  disappeared. 
Our  subsequent  meeting — the  story  of  which 
I  shall  tell — is  one  of  my  few  agreeable  recol- 
lections in  the  train  of  the  tragedy  of  our 
campaign. 

But  to  go  back  to  the  fight. 

Soon  after  leaving  the  spot  where  McD 

lay,  I  joined  in  a  charge  on  a  line  of  hidden 
trenches.  We  were  upon  them,  and  it  was 
steel  and  teeth  again.  I  saw  an  officer  run 
in  under  a  bayonet  thrust,  and  jab  his  thumbs 
into  a  German's  eyes.  The  boche  rolled  upon 
the  ground,  screaming.  How  long  we  fought, 
I  do  not  know.  When  it  was  over  we  began 
to  pick  up  the  wounded.  It  was  night.  The 
Prussian  guns  were  still  hammering  at  us, 
and  some  of  the  shells  set  fire  to  a  number 
of  haystacks  in  the  field  where  we  had  crossed 
the  open.  It  was  Hell.  In  the  red  glare  of 
the  fire  the  stretcher  bearers  hurried  here 
and  there  with  the  dying,  while  others  who 
had  been  placed  behind  the  hay-stacks  for 
shelter  burned  to  death  when  the  stalks 
caught  fire.  The  few  who  could,  crawled 
away  from  the  fire.  Those  of  us  who  were 
able  to  do  so,  pulled  others  to  safety,  and 

93 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

many  a  man  had  his  hands  and  face  badly 
burned,  rescuing  a  helpless  comrade. 

The  next  morning  we  went  at  them  again. 
In  the  first  rush,  I  felt  a  sudden  slap  against 
my  thigh.  It  did  not  feel  like  anything  more 
than  a  blow  from  an  open  palm.  I  thought 
nothing  more  of  it  until  after  the  fight,  when 
some  one  told  me  I  was  bleeding.  A  bullet 
had  struck  the  flesh  of  my  thigh.  The  slight 
wound  was  dressed  at  the  regimental  station, 
and  I  was  ready  for  duty  again. 

That  night  I  was  assigned  to  outpost  duty 
between  the  lines.  The  German  artillery  had 
so  covered  the  roads  and  the  bridge,  that  for 
two  days  the  supply  wagons  had  been  un- 
able to  come  up.  I  was  almost  starved.  My 
stomach  ached  incessantly  from  sheer  hunger 
and  I  was  weak  from  the  bleeding  of  my 
wound.  It  seems  terrible,  looking  back  at 
it,  but,  during  the  night,  while  my  partner 
watched,  I  crawled  out  and  searched  the 
dead  for  rations.  I  found  none.  Fifty  paces 
from  our  post  lay  a  dead  artillery  horse.  We 
had  to  eat — or  drop.  What  could  we  do? 
Wriggling  on  my  belly  like  a  snake,  I  drew 
myself  toward  the  smelling  carcass,  cut  off 

94 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

enough  with  my  jackknife  to  do  the  section, 
brought  it  back,  and  we  ate  it. 

There  followed  days  of  lying  in  the  trenches. 
Every  time  one  of  us  showed  a  head  above 
the  surface  of  the  earth  a  single  shot  would 
ring  out,  and  more  than  once  it  accomplished 
its  mission.  Two  or  three  times  I  almost 
caught  it  myself.  At  last  I  made  up  my  mind 
that  the  sniper  must  be  in  a  sugar  factory 
building  which  showed  clearly  above  a  ridge 
on  the  right  front  of  our  position.  Jock 
Hunter  and  I  volunteered  to  go  there  and 
investigate.  Working  our  way  under  cover  of 
a  wooded  patch,  we  reached  the  factory 
yard  where  we  encountered  an  old  French- 
man who  seemed  to  be  the  owner  of  the  place. 

"What  do  you  want?"  he  demanded. 

"Have  you  seen  a  sniper  anywhere  about 
here?"  I  asked. 

"No,"  he  answered  in  a  surly  manner, 
"and  you  get  out  of  here." 

"We'll  get  out,"  I  retorted,  "and  you'll 
get  with  us." 

I  searched  the  factory  building  from  cellar 
to  roof  but  wasn't  able  to  discover  anything 
incriminating.  I  didn't  know  much  about 

95 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

sugar  factories,  but  there  was  a  lot  of  ma- 
chinery in  the  place  that  didn't  look  to  me  as 
if  it  had  anything  to  do  with  sugar. 

Back  to  our  lines  we  went,  with  the  sup- 
posed Frenchman  making  a  lot  of  noise,  but 
walking  about  two  inches  in  front  of  the 
points  of  our  bayonets.  When  he  was  searched 
we  found  notes  to  the  value  of  fifteen  thou- 
sand francs  sewed  in  his  clothes,  but  most 
important  of  all,  there  were  papers  upon  his 
person  which  showed  that  he  was  a  German 
spy  left  there  by  the  Prussians  in  1871.  He 
held  title  to  many  acres  of  land,  including 
some  of  the  quarries  where  shells  had  been 
hidden. 

I  told  the  company  officer  of  the  suspicious- 
looking  machinery  in  the  factory.  He  sent 
us  back  there  with  a  subaltern  of  the  engi- 
neers. The  three  of  us  approached  the  build- 
ing by  different  routes.  Suddenly,  from  a 
narrow  window  in  the  tower  of  the  structure, 
a  rifle  cracked,  and  I  saw  the  subaltern  duck 
behind  a  bush.  Hunter  and  I  each  began  to 
run  toward  the  factory.  Zip!  A  bullet 
whistled  past  my  ear,  and  a  few  seconds  later 
Hunter  was  fired  at. 

96 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

We  all  reached  the  place  together.  As  the 
firing  had  been  from  the  tower,  we  hurried 
to  the  upper  storeys,  but  the  subaltern  saw  at 
a  glance  that  the  machinery  I  had  noticed 
was  a  wireless  plant.  Afterward  we  found 
that  the  numerous  "lightning  rods'*  on  the 
factory  were  in  reality  wireless  antennae.  We 
went  to  the  top  of  the  tower  without  finding 
a  single  soul,  but  in  a  little  room  in  the 
cupola,  there  were  a  few  bread  crumbs  scat- 
tered over  the  floor.  A  corner  of  the  linoleum 
covering  on  the  floor  of  this  room  looked  a 
little  uneven.  The  subaltern  posted  each  of 
us.  in  a  different  corner  with  orders  to  fire 
three  rapid  rounds  from  our  rifles  into  dif- 
ferent points  of  the  floor.  He  himself  was  to 
discharge  his  revolver  in  a  like  manner.  At 
his  signal  we  all  opened  fire,  splintering  the 
floor  in  several  places.  Then  we  heard  a 
groan. 

"Come  up  here!"  called  the  subaltern,  in 
English.  There  was  no  answer.  He  repeated 
the  command  in  German.  Very  slowly  the 
linoleum  in  the  corner  of  the  room  where 
it  was  uneven  began  to  hump  up.  We  all 
stood  ready  to  fire.  A  trap  door  was  lifting. 

97 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Presently  the  corner  of  the  floor  covering  was 
pushed  back  completely  and  a  man's  face 
appeared.  It  was  a  very  white,  drawn  face, 
and,  as  the  shoulders  rose  above  the  floor 
level,  we  saw  that  the  man  had  been  struck 
by  at  least  one  of  our  bullets.  His  left  arm 
hung  limp  by  his  side.  We  patched  him  up. 

The  officer  told  Hunter  and  myself  to  cut 
all  wires,  which,  after  some  search,  we  found 
had  been  laid  at  the  bottom  of  the  walls  and 
cunningly  concealed  by  the  grass.  Then  we 
took  our  prisoner  back  to  our  lines.  An  hour 
later  our  howitzers  had  demolished  the  fac- 
tory. Up  to  this  time,  the  boche  artillery 
had  been  planting  one  shell  after  another  on 
our  positions,  no  matter  how  often  we  shifted. 
After  the  factory  was  destroyed  we  made  one 
more  move  and  no  shells  found  us. 

We  dug  ourselves  into  the  ground,  and 
the  almost  continual  rain  made  mud  holes 
out  of  the  trenches.  Our  force  was  not  large 
enough  in  those  days  to  allow  of  the  elaborate 
system  of  supports  and  reserves  that  exists 
to-day.  The  men  in  the  firing  trenches  had 
to  stay  there,  and  there  was  no  going  back 
into  bomb-proofs  for  a  rest.  At  night  we  lay 

98 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

down  all  in  our  muddy  clothes  with  a  water- 
proof sheet  beneath  us  and  our  greatcoats 
around  us.  The  sheet  didn't  do  much  good, 
because  after  lying  in  it  for  a  while,  it  got 
pressed  down  into  the  mud  and  slime,  which 
came  all  over  the  edges.  Every  one  had  a  cold, 
and  many  of  the  men  suffered  from  rheuma- 
tism, but  no  complaints  were  heard.  It  is 
only  when  things  are  going  smoothly  and 
"fags"  are  lacking  that  the  British  Tommy 
kicks. 

Owing  to  the  lack  of  supplies,  the  issues  of 
cigarettes  were  so  few  and  far  between  that 
the  dry  tea  that  was  sent  up  as  part  rations 
was  used  to  make  "fags."  Tommies  would 
roll  the  tea  in  paper  in  the  form  of  cigarettes 
and  smoke  it.  As  much  as  five  francs  would 
be  offered  for  one  "Woodbine"  when  our 
supplies  were  exhausted.  A  "fag"  was  a 
most  precious  thing,  and  guarded  jealously. 
A  fellow  would  get  into  a  corner,  take  a  couple 
of  puffs,  "nip"  it,  then  hide  it  away  in  a  safe 
place  on  his  person  for  fear  of  thieves  in  the 
night!  In  one  instance,  I  watched  a  scene 
that  would  have  brought  forth  laughter  as 
well  as  pity  from  a  civilian.  One  Tommy 

99 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

was  observed  in  a  corner  finishing  a  half-inch 
butt,  holding  it  by  a  pin  which  was  stuck 
through  it.  Three  others  immediately 
pounced  upon  him  and  his  treasure.  _  After 
a  short  argument  they  formed  a  truce  in  the 
following  manner:  each  man  in  rotation  was 
to  take  one  puff.  A  cockney  with  a  Walrus 
moustache  was  last  on  the  line,  and  with 
great  sadness  on  his  face  and  a  sob  in  his  voice 
said:  "Bli'  me!  w'ere  the  'ell  do  /  come  in?" 
Out  in  front  of  our  trenches  the  mud  was 
full  of  the  bodies  of  the  dead — mostly  Ger- 
mans, but  a  few  of  our  men.  At  night,  we 
went  out  to  bury  them,  but  the  enemy  fired 
on  us,  so  we  had  to  leave  them  there.  'The 
wind  was  blowing  our  way,  and  they  knew 
the  odours  of  the  battlefield  were  as  hard 
for  us  to  bear  as  was  their  artillery  or  rifle 
fire.  This  scheme  they  had  learned  from  the 
Russians,  who  practised  it  during  their  war 
with  Japan. 


100 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 

OUR  trenches  were  pretty  effective 
against  rifle  fire,  but  we  had  not  yet 
learned  to  make  them  deep  and  narrow 
enough  in  proportion  to  protect  us  against 
shrapnel,  which  is  not  of  much  use  against 
troops  in  the  present-day  trench.  Our  de- 
fence lay  in  leaning  up  close  against  the  front 
wall  of  the  trench,  which  caused  most  of  the 
force  of  the  shrapnel  burst  to  go  over  our 
heads.  One  morning  I  was  hugging  the  wall 
of  the  trench  as  close  as  I  could  stick,  when 
a  "coal  box"  burst  near  by.  It  tore  down  a 
long  section  of  trench  wall,  killing  a  number 
of  men.  I  saw  the  explosion  and  the  next 
thing  I  knew  I  heard  some  one  saying: 

"Ah'll  bet  ye'  Joe's  snuffed  it  noo',  puir 
lad." 

I  stuck  my  head  up  out  of  what  seemed 
to  me  to  be  a  ton  or  two  of  rock  and  dirt  and 
yelled:  "No;  not  this  time!" 

You  should  have  seen  their  faces.  Some 
101 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

looked  frightened  and  others  relieved.  In  a 
second  they  began  to  laugh.  Two  or  three 
of  them  helped jne  to  my  feet,  and  then  the 
laughing  became  more  boisterous. 

"It  isn't  so  d funny  as  you  think,"  I 

said,  getting  a  little  peeved. 

They  turned  me  round  and  one  of  them 
held  up  the  front  part  of  my  kilt  in  such  a 
way  that  I  could  see  the  whole  rear  of  the 
garment  had  been  torn  off.  Certain  portions 
of  my  anatomy  were  as  guiltless  of  clothes 
as  when  I  was  born.  A  splinter  of  the  shell, 
about  fourteen  pounds  in  weight,  had  given 
me  a  close  crop.  Then  I  had  to  laugh  too, 
though  I  was  somewhat  battered  and  sore, 
but  that  night  it  wasn't  so  funny.  I  was 
almost  frozen  while  on  sentry  go,  and  the  next 
day  it  was  just  as  bad. 

As  I  have  already  told  you,  the  transports 
were  scarce,  and  we  had  little  to  eat,  and  ab- 
solutely nothing  in  the  way  of  new  equip- 
ment. It  was  all  we  could  do  to  get  ammu- 
nition. After  shivering  all  day,  I  determined 
to  have  some  clothes.  Right  in  front  of  our 
position,  about  twenty-five  yards  from  the 
trench,  lay  a  dead  member  of  H  company 

102 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

whose  name  was  Jock  Drummond.  Under 
cover  of  darkness,  I  sneaked  out,  and  was 
almost  beside  the  body,  when  a  flare  rocket 
went  up.  All  of  No  Man's  Land  was  lit  up 
like  day  and  I  had  to  lie  among  the  dead  as 
if  I  had  been  one  of  them.  It  almost  turned 
my  stomach,  but  I  did  not  dare  to  move. 
The  Germans  were  searching  the  muddy 
ground  and  the  least  motion  on  my  part 
would  have  brought  a  dozen  or  so  bullets  my 
way. 

Presently  the  light  from  the  flare  bombs 
died  away,  and  I  wriggled  closer  to  what  had 
been  Drummond.  I  got  my  arm  under  the 
shoulders  of  the  body,  and  started  to  crawl 
back  to  the  trench.  Twice  a  rocket  went  up, 
and  I  had  to  lie  still  for  minutes  with  my 
ghastly  companion.  The  second  time,  a  Ger- 
man must  have  seen  us  move.  Three  bullets 
spattered  against  the  ground  a  few  inches 
from  me,  and  one  struck  Drummond.  I 
suppose  I  was  twelve  or  fifteen  minutes 
crawling  back  to  the  trench.  It  seemed 
fifteen  years — an  interminable  time.  I  was 
not  yet  thoroughly  hardened  to  war,  and  it 
went  against  my  whole  nature;  but — I  had 

103 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

to  have  clothes.  We  took  the  kilt  from 
Drummond's  body,  and  I  wore  it  for  weeks. 
Drummond,  at  least,  got  a  decent  burial, 
and  a  letter  we  found  in  his  pocket  we  mailed 
to  his  mother,  to  whom  it  was  addressed;  so 
perhaps  the  deed  done  with  a  selfish  jpurpose 
bore  some  good  fruits  after  all.  I  may  add 
that  the  stench  of  the  dead  lingered  with  me 
for  a  good  many  days. 

The  night  after  I  got  Drummond's  kilt, 
the  Germans  attacked  us.  We  had  erected 
barbed-wire  entanglements  in  front  of  our 
position.  We  had  empty  jam  and  bully-beef 
tins,  also  empty  shell  cases  from  field  guns, 
strung  on  the  wire  in  such  a  way  that  the 
least  touch  would  attract  attention. 

In  this  manner  we  were  notified  that  the 
Germans  were  in  the  act  of  striking  at  us. 
Now  they  were  coming — hundreds  of  them. 
There  was  a  thin  edge  of  humanity  first,  like 
the  sheeting  of  water  which  precedes  a 
breaker  up  a  gently  sloping  beach.  Behind 
it  came  units — more  closely  bunched,  and, 
still  farther  back,  was  a  mass  of  soldiery 
almost  like  a  battalion  on  parade. 

It  was  murder  to  fire  into  that  wall  of 
104 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

misty  grey — but  the  men  who  made  it  were 
bent  on  murdering  us.  I  was  firing  as  fast 
as  I  could.  On  my  right  was  a  lad  of  nine- 
teen, who  was  one  of  the  3rd  battalion  militia 
of  the  Black  Watch — a  detachment  sent  to 
replace  our  losses. 

"Pray  God  they  may  not  pass  the  wire," 
he  half  sobbed  with  every  breath.  He  was 
afraid,  but  he  would  not  run.  Every  v  man 
is  afraid  in  his  first  battle.  The  recruit's 
face  was  drawn  and  white — his  lips  a  thin, 
pressed  line — but  he  fired  calmly.  He  did 
not  mind  the  bullets,  but  he  had  not  yet  the 
"spirit  of  the  bayonet,"  and  he  dreaded  that 
they  should  pass  the  wire. 

The  first  of  the  thin  line  was  at  the  en- 
tanglement. Most  of  them  dropped  before 
they  touched  a  wire,  but  others  cut  a  single 
strand  before  a  bullet  found  its  berth.  They 
died;  but  they  had  succeeded  in  their  mis- 
sion. A  thread  of  life  cut  to  sever  a  strand 
of  wire! 

The  wave  had  risen  and  was  breaking  over 
the  entanglement.  They  were  beginning  to 
get  through.  Here  and  there  a  man  lumbered 
up  the  gentle  slope  toward  our  trenches  only 

105 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

to  fall  before  he  reached  them.  The  mass  of 
them  was  worming  through  the  wire  now. 

A  shrill  whistle  blew.  From  our  trenches 
came  a  sound  like  the  beating  of  a  hundred 
pneumatic  hammers.  It  was  the  music  of 
Hell.  The  machine  guns  and  artillery  were 
making  it,  and  they  were  spitting  out  death 
in  streams  to  the  accompaniment  of  their 
devilish  music.  God  was  answering  the 
prayer  of  the  little  lad.  The  Germans  were 
dropping  at  the  wire;  they  would  not  pass. 

The  wee  death  engines  were  playing  just 
a  foot  or  so  above  the  bottom  of  the  wire, 
and  they  were  literally  cutting  the  legs  from 
under  the  mass  of  grey-clad  men.  The  back 
wash  from  the  wave  which  broke  against  the 
wire  was  thinner  than  the  wash  that  had  pre- 
ceded it. 

"Thank  God!"  gasped  the  boy;  "I  did  not 
have  to  use  my  bayonet." 

"It's  guid  steel  wasted,"  growled  a  ginger- 
whiskered  old-timer  on  my  left,  as  he  wiped 
the  dampness  from  the  blade  with  his  sleeve 
and  dropped  the  bayonet  back  into  its  scab- 
bard. 

[To-day  such  an  attack  on  the  British  lines 
106 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

would  invariably  be  followed  by  a  counter 
attack  to  show  the  Germans  that  the  initia- 
tive lies — always  must  lie — with  the  Allies; 
but,  in  those  days,  we  had  not  the  men ._  Our 
lines  were  often  so  thin  that,  had  they  been 
pierced  at  a  single  point,  we  would  have  been 
crumpled  up  like  paper.] 

After  this  fight,  we  were  relieved  by  an 
East  Yorkshire  regiment  and  told  that  we 
would  go  to  billets  about  three  miles  in  the 
rear,  but  we  had  scarcely  left  the  trenches 
when  we  received  orders  to  get  to  billets  and 
hold  ourselves  hi  readiness  to  occupy  a  new 
position  in  the  line.  The  Black  Watch  at 
that  time  was  again  brought  up  to  strength 
by  the  addition  of  a  re-enforcement  of  five 
hundred  men. 

A  party  of  us  was  sent  to  guard  a  bridge 
that  our  engineers  were  repairing,  it  having 
been  blown  up  the  previous  day  by  big  shell 
fire.  I  had  just  got  off  duty  and  was  sitting 
before  the  log  fire  in  the  block-house  with  a 
few  other  fellows,  when  in  popped  a  little 
Algerian,  as  black  as  the  ace  of  spades.  On 
recognizing  that  we  were  Scots,  he  held  out 
his  hand  and  said: 

107 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

"My  name's  MacPherson;  what's  yours?" 

He  made  himself  right  at  home,  and  we 
shared  our  bully  beef  and  biscuit  with  him. 
We  had  just  been  warming  it.  Our  black 
"Scotsman"  insisted  on  staying  with  us,  and 
so  we  adopted  him  as  a  sort  of  mascot. 

Shortly  after  we  took  up  our  new  position 
in  the  line,  a  German  sniper  began  to  annoy 
us,  and  continued  to  do  so  almost  ceaselessly. 
Every  time  anything  showed  so  much  as  an 
inch  above  the  crest,  it  drew  fire,  and  a  num- 
ber of  our  men  were  shot  passing  traverses. 
There  was  a  wood  near  our  position,  and  we 
were  pretty  sure  the  fire  was  coming  from 
there  although  we  could  not  locate  it.  The 
Algerian  was  a  crack  shot,  and  wanted  to 
prove  it,  so  he  went  to  our  lieutenant  and  said : 

"Me  get  sniper,  if  you  like." 

"Go  ahead,"  said  the  lieutenant,  half 
jokingly. 

It  seemed  ridiculous  to  think  of  "Mac- 
Pherson"— with  his  tiny  body  and  his  face 
of  a  black  angel  "getting"  anybody. 

The  little  Algerian  disappeared.  At  the 
end  of  three  hours,  after  we  had  all  given 
him  up  as  lost  or  strayed,  he  returned, 

108 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

clutching  a  small  untidy  package  rolled  in  a 
French  newspaper. 

"Well,  then,  he  didn't  eat  you  up,  did  he?" 
some  one  asked. 

The  little  Algerian  understood  English 
poorly,  but  he  generally  got  the  gist  of 
things.  This  time  he  evidently  thought  he 
had  been  asked  whether  he  had  eaten  up  the 
sniper. 

"Ugh!"  he  exclaimed;  "me  no  eat  sniper, 
but  git  him.  Look  here." 

Very  gingerly  he  unrolled  his  sheet  of  news- 
paper and,  as  evidence  that  he  had  landed 
his  man,  exposed  to  view  a  human  ear.  He 
wanted  to  present  the  ear  to  the  lieutenant, 
but  the  officer  declined  the  honour.* 

There  was  much  night-patrol  work  to  do 
on  the  Aisne.  Often  we  ran  into  German 
reconnaissance  patrols.  One  night  I  was 
scouting  with  another  man.  Five  or  six  hun- 
dred yards  from  our  lines,  we  came  upon  a 
boche  sentry.  He  was  a  big,  heavy  fellow, 
and  I  remember  thinking  that  he  looked  as 
if  the  hard  army  life  had  not  yet  worked 

*»Since  my  discharge  and  residence  here  in  America,  I  have  heard 
several  other  cases  of  this  kind,  but  the  one  narrated  above  is  the 
only  one  I  actually  came  in  contact  with.  THE  AUTHOR. 

109 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

the  surfeit  of  beer  out  of  his  system.  He  was 
leaning  on  the  parapet,  and  appeared  to  be 
asleep.  We  wanted  to  get  beyond,  as  he  was 
on  the  German  advance  listening  post,  but, 
as  a  reconnaissance  patrol  must  conceal  from 
the  enemy  all  evidence  of  its  proximity,  we 
dared  not  shoot  him.  So  we  crawled  to  one 
side  of  him,  and  my  partner,  who  was  slightly 
ahead,  gave  him  a  thud  on  the  side  of  the 
neck,  which  only,  as  we  thought,  made  him 
sleep  the  more  soundly.  He  dropped  into  the 
trench.  The  next  moment  a  head  bobbed 
up  and  the  dose  was  repeated  with  the  result 
that  the  boche  (whom  we  had  mistaken  for 
the  first  man)  slid  back  again.  We  looked 
over  to  see  whether  the  second  blow  had  done 
its  work;  there  were  two  forms  instead  of  one. 
My  partner  took  a  helmet  as  a  souvenir. 
He  kept  it  for  one  day  and  then  abandoned 
it  as  inconvenient  to  carry.  He  found  that 
a  souvenir  the  size  of  a  boche's  helmet  could 
not  be  put  between  the  leaves  of  his  St.  John's 
Gospel. 

Being  about  the  only  Black  Watch  scout 
left  of  those  that  had  first  landed  in  France, 

110 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

I  had  been  almost  constantly  on  duty  during 
the  fighting  at  the  Aisne.  You  can  imagine 
then  how  happy  I  was  when  we  were  re- 
lieved from  the  trenches  and  billeted  a  short 
distance  in  the  rear  in  hay  lofts,  cottages, 
and  stables. 

On  our  way  to  billets  we  were  looking  for- 
ward to  a  "cushy"  time,  a  good  rest,  a  decent 
meal,  and  a  wash,  and  hoping  that  the  next 
section  of  trench  we  took  over  would  be  much 
quieter.  It  did  not  seem,  however,  as  if  I 
had  had  much  more  than  the  proverbial 
"forty  winks"  when  we  were  sent  back  to 
support  the  Cameron  Highlanders. 

It  was  the  Camerons  who  had  just  relieved 
us  and  their  headquarters  were  in  a  quarry 
where  ours  had  been.  A  few  "coal  boxes" 
had  landed  in  the  quarry,  and  reduced  it  to 
a  mass  of  debris.  Only  one  officer  and  bugler 
had  survived.  It  was  here  that  Sergeant- 
Major  Burt,  of  my  native  town,  was  killed. 
He  was  reputed  to  have  the  "best  word  of 
command"  in  the  British  army.  We  reached 
the  scene  in  time  to  help  the  Scots  Guards 
dig  out  some  of  them.  It  was  a  gruesome 
job.  Some  of  the  men  had  been  pinned  under 

111 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

heavy  rocks  for  hours  without  losing  con- 
sciousness. 

There  was,  in  particular,  one  instance  of 
an  officer  [I  cannot  recall  his  name]  whose 
legs  were  crushed  and  pinned  down.  His 
head  had  been  cut  by  a  shell  splinter.  When 
we  tried  to  dig  him  out,  he  ordered  us  to  at- 
tend first  to  a  private,  a  few  feet  away,  whose 
ribs  had  been  smashed  in  and  who  was  bleed- 
ing from  the  nose  and  mouth. 

In  all,  about  thirty  officers  and  men  lost 
their  lives  here. 

We  were  called  from  this  scene  of  carnage 
to  defend  a  trench  line  against  the  Prussian 
Guards  who  were  threatening  to  break 
through.  The  machine-gun  and  shrapnel 
fire  was  terrific,  and  for  a  time  we  were  glad 
to  squeeze  ourselves  close  against  the  parapet. 
Then  suddenly  everything  seemed  uncomfort- 
ably quiet.  Wounded  were  screaming  and 
groaning  all  about  us;  men,  who  had  not 
been  struck,  were  muttering  to  themselves— 
driven  half  mad  by  the  bombardment;  but, 
the  instant  the  roar  of  the  guns  and  shell 
explosions  ceased,  all  seemed  still.  The 
Prussians  were  undoubtedly  preparing  to 

112 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

charge  us,  but  they  must  have  been  slow  in 
getting  started.  We  got  hurried  orders  to 
get  ready  to  go  over  the  top  and  surprise  them. 

I  thought  of  but  one  thing  as  I  ran  for- 
ward; that  was — "Blighty."  On  going  to 
billets  it  had  been  my  intention  to  write  to 
the  folks  at  home  the  next  day  after  getting 
a  rest,  but  our  stay  had  been  so  short  that  to 
do  so  had  been  impossible.  And  now  my 
thought  was:  "Perhaps  I  sha'n't  return." 

The  Prussians  seemed  surprised  by  our 
quick  attack,  and  the  offensive  was  wrested 
from  them.  We  became  the  assaulters.  How 
I  got  through  the  entanglement  I  cannot  tell. 
All  I  know  is  that  I  left  part  of  my  kilt 
dangling  amid  the  wires.  However,  before 
we  reached  their  trench  line,  the  Prussians 
had  scrambled  over  their  parapet  to  meet  us. 
In  the  general  mix-up  I  found  myself  locked 
in  the  arms  of  a  bear-like  Prussian  Guards- 
man who  evidently  had  lost  his  rifle  and  bay- 
onet. His  knee  was  at  my  knee — his  chest 
pressed  against  my  chest.  Our  faces  touched. 

I  slid  my  hands  up  along  the  barrel  of  my 
rifle  until  they  were  almost  under  the  hilt  of 
the  bayonet.  Very  slowly  I  shoved  the  butt 

113 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

back  of  me  and  to  the  side.  Lower  and 
lower  I  dropped  it.  The  keen  blade  was 
between  us.  All  the  Hun  seemed  to  know 
about  wrestling  was  to  hug.  He  dared  not 
let  go.  Had  he  known  a  few  tricks  of  the 
game,  I  should  not  be  writing  this  to-day. 

Instinctively  I  felt  that  the  point  of  my 
bayonet  was  in  line  with  his  throat.  With 
every  ounce  of  strength  in  my  body,  I 
wrenched  my  shoulders  upward  and  straight- 
ened my  knees.  The  action  broke  his  hold, 
and  my  bayonet  was  driven  into  his  greasy 
throat.  His  arms  relaxed;  I  was  drenched 
with  blood,  but  it  was  not  my  own.  I  stag- 
gered away  from  him,  wrenching  my  rifle  free 
as  he  fell. 

The  thrust  I  had  used  has  come  to  be  known 
as  the  "jab  point";  they  are  teaching  it  to 
the  American  army  to-day.  It  developed 
naturally  from  just  such  situations  as  I  have 
described. 

It  was  an  awful  melee.  There  were  men 
swinging  rifles  overhead;  others,  kicking, 
punching,  and  tearing  at  their  adversaries; 
while  others  again,  wrestling,  had  fallen  to 
the  ground,  struggling  one  to  master  the 

114 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

other.  One  Highlander,  who  had  been  struck 
by  a  bullet  just  before  reaching  the  enemy 
parapet,  grasped  his  rifle,  and  crawled  as 
best  he  could  the  intervening  distance,  wait- 
ing his  chance  to  get  his  man.  At  last  it 
came.  His  bayonet  found  its  mark,  before 
the  bulky  Hun  could  ward  off  the  unexpected 
stroke  from  the  wounded  lad.  In  a  moment 
they  were  both  lying  prone  on  the  earth. 
The  Highlander,  I  am  sure,  died  content — 
content  that  he  had  got  his  quota  at  least. 

It  was  the  wildest  confusion,  but  its  im- 
pressions were  absolutely  photographic.  I 
can  see  it  all,  again,  this  moment. 

The  Prussians  were  finally  obliged  to  retire 
to  their  reserve  trenches.  We  took  their 
firing  trench,  but  had  to  vacate  it  because  it 
was  subject  to  an  enfilading  fire  from  the 
enemy.  As  we  retreated  in  company  squads, 
we  kept  up  a  steady  fire. 

While  making  for  our  trenches,  I  shouted 
to  one  of  the  fellows  on  my  left  to  keep  down 
as  we  were  drawing  the  enemy's  fire.  The 
sentence  was  hardly  completed,  when  some- 
thing hot  struck  me  on  the  left  jaw.  It 
seemed  as  if  I  had  been  hit  with  a  sledge 

115 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

hammer.  I  spun  round,  stumbled,  and  fell 
to  the  ground.  I  realized  that  it  was  a  bullet 
and  tried  to  swear  at  the  boches,  but  all  I 
could  do  was  to  spit  and  cough,  for  the  blood 
was  almost  choking  me.  The  bullet,  entering 
my  cheek  and  shattering  some  of  my  teeth 
in  passing,  made  its  exit  by  way  of  my  mouth. 
My  warning,  however,  had  saved  the  life  of 
the  lad  I  had  shouted  to.  He  flopped  to  the 
ground  just  in  time  to  avoid  a  sweep  of  ma- 
chine-gun fire,  and  managed  to  crawl  to  our 
trench,  which  was  a  very  short  distance  off. 

I  was  sent  to  the  regimental  dressing  sta- 
tion. There  were  scores  there  more  seriously 
wounded  than  I,  and  they  were,  of  course, 
attended  to  first.  By  the  time  it  was  my 
turn,  my  face  was  so  completely  smeared 
with  congealed  blood  that  the  orderly  couldn't 
locate  the  wound.  He  wiped  my  face  with 
a  bunch  of  grass  and  applied  a  dressing.  I 
was  relieved  to  hear  that  it  was  a  clean  wound. 

In  the  dressing  station,  suffering  as  I  was, 
I  noticed  two  men  forcibly  controlling  a 
wounded  comrade.  After  a  moment  I  recog- 
nized him  as  the  little  recruit  who  had  prayed 
that  the  Germans  might  not  pass  the  wire 

116 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

and  come  to  bayonet  fighting  with  us.  His 
features  were  so  changed  that  he  seemed 
aged  a  dozen  years  and — believe  it  or  not, 
as  you  will — his  hair,  which  had  been  sleek 
and  black,  was  entirely  white.  He  had  been 
only  slightly  wounded  but  the  heavy  bom- 
bardment had  driven  him  entirely  mad.  He 
was  continually  crying  for  his  mother.  I 
afterward  learned  that  he  and  his  mother, 
who  was  blind,  had  lived  together  and  had 
been  warmly  devoted  to  each  other,  but  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  war,  his  mother  felt  it 
her  duty  to  send  him  to  fight.  The  boy  re- 
covered his  mental  faculties  a  month  or  two 
after  being  sent  home. 


117 


CHAPTER  EIGHT 

AFTER  the  first  dressing  of  my  wound, 
I  was  sent  to  our  transport  station,  a 
short  distance  behind  the  lines,  being 
told  that  in  a  few  days  I  would  be  fit  for 
duty  again.  There  was  a  farm  here.  By 
the  time  I  reached  the  farm  house  the  pain 
of  my  wound  was  terrific.  It  was  like  a 
toothache  all  over  my  head  and  down  into 
my  neck  and  shoulders.  Nevertheless,  I 
threw  myself  onto  a  pile  of  straw  in  the  barn 
and,  after  tossing  about  a  while,  managed  to 
fall  asleep. 

When  I  awoke  it  was  daylight  again,  the 
entire  night  having  passed.  Leaning  over  me 
was  a  little  French  girl — she  must  have  been 
about  eight  years  old — with  a  pitcher  of  milk, 
which  she  held  out  toward  me.  In  spite  of 
the  condition  of  my  mouth,  I  managed  to 
swallow  the  milk.  I  was  almost  starved  and 
very  weak.  I  tried  to  persuade  the  little 
girl  to  accept  a  franc  for  the  milk,  but  she 

118 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

shook  her  head,  and  skipped  off.  Following 
her  out  of  the  barn,  I  met  her  mother  to 
whom,  also,  I  offered  payment;  she,  too,  re- 
fused it. 

We  could  hear  the  rumbling  of  big  guns; 
shells  were  exploding  not  far  away;  then  came 
the  noise  of  transport  wagons  approaching 
the  farm.  I  turned  back  toward  the  barn  and 
had  not  gone  more  than  ten  paces  when  there 
was  a  crash  overhead.  Splinters  and  shrapnel 
spattered  into  the  farm  yard.  I  ducked  and 
hastened  my  pace.  Then  there  was  a  thud 
behind  me,  as  if  a  bag  of  potatoes  had  been 
dropped  from  a  lorry.  Almost  simultaneously 
came  a  scream  from  the  little  girl. 

I  turned  just  in  time  to  see  the  mother  of 
the  child  fall,  roll  down  out  of  the  doorway 
in  which  the  two  were  standing,  and  lie 
ominously  still.  The  little  girl  stood  gazing 
in  terror  at  the  fallen  woman.  Her  little 
hands  were  raised  shoulder  high  before  her 
and  she  shrieked — hysterically  and  helplessly. 
As  I  hastened  toward  them  the  child  seemed 
to  realize  the  awful  thing  that  had  happened 
and  threw  herself  upon  her  mother's  body, 
pressing  her  face  against  the  dying  woman's. 

119 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

I  felt  the  tears  trickling  down  my  cheek  and 
smarting  in  my  wound  as  I  heard  the  child's 
heartbroken  exclamations — terms  of  endear- 
ment they  seemed,  and  pitifully  eloquent 
enough,  though  the  tongue  in  which  they  were 
spoken  was  unknown  to  me. 

A  lad  of  ten,  barefoot  and  in  overalls,  came 
running  from  the  house.  He  knelt  and  stared 
into  his  mother's  face,  then  he  turned  a  dumb, 
questioning  glance  at  me.  I  could  not  meet 
his  eyes.  As  I  got  my  arms  under  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  fallen  woman  and  started  to  drag 
her  body  into  the  house,  I  could  hear  the 
little  fellow  sobbing  softly  but  he  didn't 
speak.  Hoping  that  it  still  might  be  of  use, 
he  helped  with  all  his  little  strength  to  move 
his  mother's  body.  Inside  the  house,  we 
pushed  the  tumbled  hair  back  from  her  face. 
A  shrapnel  bullet  had  entered  her  forehead. 
It  was  useless  to  ask  if  human  aid  could  serve 
her.  Death  had  been  almost  instantaneous. 
Then  I  saw  a  sight  that  spoke  a  volume  on 
the  cruelty  of  war  and  the  heroism  of  the 
sturdy  French  blood  could  I  but  tell  it. 

The  little  lad  gathered  his  sister  in  his  pro- 
tecting arms  and  sat — speaking,  manfully, 

120 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

words  of  comfort  to  her — beside  the  dead 
body  of  their  mother,  shells  meanwhile  burst- 
ing all  about  the  home  which  had  been  their 
childhood  haven  of  love  and  safety,  and  brick 
and  plaster  falling  about  them  from  its  shat- 
tered roof.  The  children  were  in  serious 
danger,  but  they  steadfastly  refused  to  leave 
their  mother.  I  did  not  know  enough  French 
to  reason  with  them,  and  it  was  not  until 
some  French  muleteers  sought  shelter  behind 
the  building  that  I  was  able,  through  them, 
to  persuade  the  boy  and  girl  to  go  farther 
to  the  rear,  with  them. 

After  this  experience,  like  one  in  a  dream, 
I  made  my  way  back  to  the  trenches,  heed- 
less of  the  shells  whizzing  overhead.  The 
sight  I  had  seen  haunted  me. 

Upon  reaching  my  trench,  I  was  brought 
back  to  my  senses  by  some  of  my  "muckin'- 
in"  pals,  who  threw  all  sorts  of  questions  at 
me  in  a  jesting  fashion,  such  as: 

"Hello,  Reuter,  been  tae  Blighty  an'  back? 
Ye're  a  better  sprinter  than  Ah  thocht"; 
"Hoo's  aw  wi'  th'  fokes  at  hame?  Did  ye 
remember  the  fags?" 

It  was  some  time  before  I  was  sufficiently 
121 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

myself  again  to  be  able  to  answer  them  in 
the  proper  strain.  My  head  looked  like  a 
cotton-and-bandage  demonstration,  and  I  was 
a  sorry  looking  sight  altogether.  I  lived  for 
the  next  few  days  on  bully  beef  biscuits,  soft- 
ened, and  oxo  cubes  dissolved  in  water. 

In  a  few  days  we  were  relieved  by  French 
troops,  and  we  force-marched  north  to  stem 
the  German  thrust  at  Calais. 

After  some  stiff  marching,  we  entrained 
"somewhere."  Our  "camions"  were  coal 
trucks,  which  had  been  only  partially  un- 
loaded. Some  of  my  more  hygienic  mates 
who  were  under  the  impression  that  they  did 
not  have  as  much  grime-caked  mud  sticking 
to  them  as  the  rest,  suggested  that  our  truck 
be  cleaned  out,  but  the  general  eagerness  for 
a  corner  "doss"  put  this  suggestion  out  of 
consideration  at  once.  There  was  a  scram- 
bling match,  and  when  our  allotment  got  en- 
tirely in,  the  quartermaster  was  soundly 
"cussed."  It  seemed  as  if  the  whole  regiment 
had  been  detailed  to  this  car.  Even  in  these 
circumstances,  the  whimsical  philosophy  of 
the  private  soldier  asserted  itself.  A  little 
chap,  jammed  in  a  corner,  said  he  wanted  a 

122 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

place  by  the  side  door,  so  that  he  could  "see 
the  scenery"! 

We  travelled  all  night,  and  on  the  following 
morning  drew  up  at  a  junction  where  a  body 
of  recruits  joined  us.  They  regarded  us  with 
staring  eyes,  and  I  suppose  we  did  look  like 
a  lot  of  cave  men,  being  unshaven,  long- 
haired, grimy,  and  black  as  sweeps  with  the 
coal  dust.  We  did  not  mind  this  half  so 
much  as  the  recruits.  At  the  junction,  we 
got  a  sandwich  and  a  canteen  of  coffee  which 
had  a  most  exquisite  flavour  of  rum.  This 
was  so  pronounced  that  some  summoned  their 
nerve  sufficiently  to  go  back  for  a  "double 
attack,"  but  were  met  with  "Napoo." 

Conditions  have  changed  now,  so  that 
Tommy  is  able  to  keep  himself  shaved  and 
personally  neat,  even  in  the  mud  of  the 
trenches.  It  helps  keep  up  our  morale  and 
shatter  that  of  the  boches.  There  is  a  dis- 
tinct psychological  effect  on  the  enemy  when 
clean-shaven,  tidily-dressed  men  come  up 
out  of  the  earth  and  fall  upon  them. 

Very  soon  we  commenced  our  journey 
again.  How  long  we  were  on  the  train  I 
cannot  recall,  but  finally  we  reached  a  large 

123 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

town  where  we  got  off.  On  our  arrival  we 
could  hear  the  incessant  rumbling  of  guns, 
and  knew  we  were  going  to  have  another 
hot  time  of  it.  My  face  was  better,  but  my 
beard!  I  had  not  had  a  shave  since  before 
Mons!  While  on  the  retreat,  most  of  us,  in 
order  to  lighten  our  loads,  had  thrown  away 
the  little  items  of  our  equipment  that  we  did 
not  urgently  need.  We  kept  only  our  great- 
coats and  such  articles  as  we  required  for 
warmth. 

We  force-marched  until  early  morning, 
when  we  halted  for  a  rest,  as  the  feet  of  many 
of  our  men  were  skinned  and  in  bad  shape. 
For  myself,  I  was  walking  on  my  uppers,  as 
the  soles  and  heels  of  my  shoes  were  com- 
pletely worn  out. 

We  resumed  the  march.  We  understood 
that  we  were  in  the  vicinity  of  Ypres.  WTe 
force-marched  for  all  we  were  worth,  and  late 
in  the  afternoon  we  came  to  a  village.  Here 
we  were  billeted  on  the  side  nearest  us.  After 
getting  rations,  we  needed  no  coaxing  to  sleep. 

It  was  still  dark  when  we  got  orders  to  fall 
in  and  march  at  top  speed.  The  village  was 
being  shelled. 

124 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

This  seemed  to  have  been  a  spot  for  concen- 
trating for  we  met  with  other  regiments  there 
— one  of  them  the  King's  Royal  Rifles. 
Beyond  the  far  side  of  the  village  at  a  cer- 
tain distance  one  could  see  trees  scattered 
here  and  there,  but  farther  on  the  country 
was  flat.  It  was  in  this  direction  we  marched. 

Orders  were  whispered  along  the  line  that 
we  were  to  maintain  strict  silence  and  no 
"fags"  were  to  be  lighted,  as  we  were  near  the 
enemy,  and  were  attempting  to  move  without 
his  knowledge.  Our  officers  gave  us  the  en- 
couraging news  that  we  were  about  to  be  up 
against  some  hard  fighting — harder  than  we 
had  so  far  experienced.  Our  commander, 
Major  J.  T.  C.  Murray,  expressed  the  hope 
that  we  would  keep  the  name  of  the  "Black 
Watch"  where  our  predecessors  had  placed 
it — in  the  foremost  rank.  And  so  we  ad- 
vanced in  darkness,  with  our  minds  on  serious 
things. 

We  were  in  two  lines  of  skirmishing  order, 
one  pace  apart.  Our  object  was  to  reach  the 
flat  ground  beyond  the  trees  and  dig  ourselves 
in  before  dawn.  We  did  this.  The  digging 
was  an  easy  matter  as  the  earth  was  marshy 

125 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

and  our  entrenching  tools  proved  fit  enough 
for  the  task.  Shells  were  flying  overhead 
continually,  making  an  awful  humming  noise, 
and  some  of  them  passed  so  low  that  the  air 
disturbances  blew  caps  from  off  the  heads  of 
our  men. 

There  was  not  a  murmur  or  a  word  of  com- 
plaint from  our  wearied  and  worn  ranks. 
We  had  almost  completed  our  shallow  trenches 
when  the  boche  opened  fire  at  us  with  his 
field  guns.  It  was  hardly  dawn.  We  kept 
on  digging,  crouching  in  all  positions  to  keep 
under  cover  from  the  bombardment. 

I  suppose  that  every  one  under  shell  fire, 
at  one  time  or  another,  in  some  manner, 
prays.  I  know  that  I  often  have  done  so, 
although  not  so  ostentatiously  as  some  of  the 
men.  I  have  seen  them,  when  the  shells  were 
rocking  the  earth  and  splinters  were  whistling 
past  our  ears,  drop  to  their  knees  and  swear 
to  their  Maker  that,  if  they  were  spared, 
when  they  returned  home  they  would  go  to 
church  regularly  and  be  kinder  to  their  wives 
and  children. 

Some  of  our  men  ceased  digging  after 
reaching  what  they  thought  a  safe  depth, 

126 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

and  crouched  against  the  parapet  for  safety. 
Others  of  us  started  making  what  are  known 
to-day  as  dug-outs.  Jock  Hunter  and  I 
made  one  to  hold  both  of  us.  We  dug  away 
under  the  parapet  so  that  we  could  crawl  in 
with  only  our  feet  sticking  out.  This  not 
only  sheltered  us  from  the  unceasing  shrapnel, 
but  from  the  rain  also.  Some  of  the  boys  lying 
in  the  trenches  had  been  killed  and  some 
wounded  from  the  shrapnel  bursting  over- 
head, so  the  officers  gave  orders  that  we  were 
all  to  make  these  dug-outs. 

A  man  from  each  company  had  been  detailed 
for  look-out  duty,  at  which  we  all  took  turn 
of  an  hour  each.  It  was  noon  before  we 
heard  any  response  from  our  artillery,  but 
then  it  checked  the  German  fire  considerably. 

The  rain  came  down  heavily,  flooding  us 
out  of  our  dug-outs,  and  we  were  obliged  to 
stand  in  the  trench  like  a  lot  of  half-drowned 
rats,  our  greatcoats  on  and  our  waterproof 
sheets  over  them.  At  first  we  were  standing 
on  earth,  but  before  long  the  muck  had  reached 
over  our  ankles. 

There  was  at  least  one  virtue  in  the  rain — 
it  softened  our  bully-beef  biscuits,  which  we 

127 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

ate  standing  in  the  trenches,  wet  to  the  skin 
and  with  water  dripping  from  our  greatcoats 
and  kilts. 

^Toward  night  the  rain  ceased.  We  had  ex- 
pected to  be  attacked  at  any  minute  that  day, 
but  for  some  reason  or  another  we  escaped  it. 
We  got  a  rum  issue.  Then  volunteers  were 
asked  for,  to  go  and  fetch  some  hot  "gun- 
fire." (It  was  hot  when  the  ration  party 
got  it,  but  quite  cold  when  it  reached  us.) 

That  night  I  was  given  orders  to  go  on 
night  reconnaissance.  While  I  was  away  on 
this  duty,  the  engineers  came  up  and  our 
fellows  dug  in  again  in  advance  of  the  old 
trenches.  The  engineers  then  constructed  a 
barbed-wire  entanglement  in  front  of  our 
position. 

Wet  and  cold,  and  covered  with  mud,  I 
went  off  on  patrol  duty,  and  many  a  shell 
hole  I  stumbled  into  to  make  me  wetter. 
The  enemy's  position  was  about  seven  hun- 
dred yards  from  ours. 

When  moving  between  the  lines,  I  noticed 
the  outline  of  a  big  man.  I  don't  know  why 
I  didn't  fall  down  upon  seeing  him.  My  in- 
stinct told  me  to  go  ahead  to  make  sure  who 

128 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

it  was.  We  were  making  straight  for  each 
other;  as  we  met  we  almost  brushed  sleeves; 
then,  with  no  more  than  a  glance  at  each 
other,  we  passed  on;  but  you  may  be  sure 
that  I  had  my  jackknife  in  the  proper  hand. 
I  could  not  say  even  now  whether  or  not  he 
was  a  German. 

I  returned  to  our  lines  and,  after  reporting, 
helped  to  finish  the  trenches.  I  heard  the 
following  morning  that  one  of  our  patrols 
had  captured  a  German.  I  wondered  if  he 
might  be  the  big  fellow  I  had  passed  in  the 
dark. 

We  received  the  order  to  "stand  to"  at 
dawn.  Other  troops  had  dug  themselves  in 
some  distance  behind  us  during  the  night. 
We  got  another  rum  issue  just  before  "stand 
to";  it  was  highly  appreciated. 

At  dawn,  the  Germans  attacked  in  mass  for- 
mation, but  our  rifle  and  artillery  fire  made 
big  gaps  as  they  advanced.  They  did  not 
reach  our  trenches.  They  retired,  leaving 
piles  of  dead.  The  nearest  of  their  dead  were 
not  more  than  one  hundred  yards  from  us. 

This  time  we  had  very  few  casualties  in 
our  battalion — largely  on  account  of  our 

129 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

having  dug  in  ahead  of  our  old  position,  the 
range  of  which  the  enemy  had.  Their  fire 
constantly  over-reached  us. 

After  this  attack  was  over,  we  heard  the 
buzzing  of  airplanes,  and  although  we  had 
been  instructed  not  to  look  up — the  white  of 
faces  being  very  conspicuous  from  above— 
we  ventured  to  do  so,  and  saw  a  British  plane 
smash  headlong  into  a  boche  machine.  Both 
went  end  over  end  to  earth,  and  the  pilots 
undoubtedly  were  killed.  The  Englishman, 
in  giving  his  life,  had  saved  perhaps  hundreds 
of  us  in  the  trenches. 

In  the  afternoon,  after  a  heavy  bombard- 
ment, which  tore  up  some  of  our  barbed 
wire,  the  enemy  made  another  charge.  This 
time  they  came  over  in  wave  formation. 
The  order  was  passed  along  to  "fix  bayonets," 
and,  as  soon  as  the  Germans  reached  the 
barbed  wire,  to  spring  out  and  meet  them. 
This  we  did. 

We  fought  off  line  after  line.  The  Black 
Watch  suffered  many  casualties  here,  but  not 
so  many  as  the  Germans.  This  crowd  had 
less  love  for  the  bayonet  than  their  brothers 
at  the  Aisne.  Soon  we  were  chasing  them 

130 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

out  beyond  the  barbed  wire.  We  took  many 
prisoners.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  officer's 
whistle  to  retire,  I  think  we  would  have  driven 
them  to  Berlin,  the  way  we  felt  that  day. 
However,  back  we  had  to  come. 

The  enemy's  artillery  fire  began  to  pound 
on  us  as  we  were  making  for  our  trenches, 
and  some  of  our  fellows  were  bowled  over  as 
the  result  of  it.  As  many  of  the  wounded 
as  we  could  bring,  we  brought  back  with  us. 

One  fellow  was  lying  about  fifty  yards 
away  from  the  trench.  Two  of  his  mates 
volunteered  to  go  out  for  him,  but  in  the 
attempt  they  were  wounded  and  forced  to 
come  back  without  him.  Two  others  then 
went  out;  these  managed  to  bring  him  in — 
but  he  was  dead.  He  was  a  young  lad — one 
of  the  latest  to  join  our  battalion.  His 
equipment  was  practically  new.  I  was  given 
his  shoes;  they  were  much  too  big  for  me, 
but  nevertheless  I  was  grateful  for  them. 

That  night  I  helped  to  carry  back  more  of 
the  wounded,  and,  with  the  rest,  assisted  the 
engineers  to  fix  up  the  barbed  wire.  This, 
coupled  with  the  fighting  of  the  day,  well 
nigh  exhausted  me,  but  I  didn't  get  the  rest 

131 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

which  I  so  much  desired  and  expected,  as  I 
was  detailed  as  one  of  our  company  ration 
party,  comprising  six  men  and  a  non-com- 
missioned officer. 

Owing  to  occasional  shell  fire,  we  were 
obliged  to  crawl  close  to  the  ground  while 
on  our  way  to  the  supply  station.  When  we 
were  coming  back,  the  boches  used  flare  lights 
which  made  us  visible  to  them.  I  had  a  box 
of  biscuits  on  my  head.  It  made  a  fine 
target,  and  when  I  reached  our  trenches  I 
found  that  bullets  had  pierced  it. 


132 


CHAPTER  NINE 

FOR  a  day  or  two  after  this  we  had  com- 
parative  quiet.     Only  bursts   of   shell 
fire  threatened  us,  but  these  were  so 
common  as  to  be  hardly  noticed.    The  stench 
of  the  dead  was  terrible — worse  than  we  had 
yet  experienced.    Men  turned  sick  and  were 
positively  useless  for  hours,  many  being  sent 
to  the  base  hospital  for  treatment  for  their 
violent  nausea.    Others  developed  rheumatic 
fever  from  sleeping  in  the  mud  and  water. 

Shortly  after  this,  during  the  night  time, 
we  were  relieved  by  an  English  regiment, 
composed  of  men  who  had  not  yet  seen  the 
worst  of  the  fighting.  They  were  fresh  and 
inclined  to  be  jovial.  They  asked  rather 
carelessly  about  conditions  as  we  had  found 
them;  we  told  them  plainly  what  they  had  to 
expect.  That  seemed  to  sober  them  some- 
what but  not  greatly.  So  we  extended  to 
them  the  conventional  wish  for  the  "best  o* 
luck"  and  left  them  to  find  out  for  themselves 

133 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

that  they  were  in  a  campaign  which  could 
only  be  called  one  of  present  desperation  and 
ultimate  sacrifice. 

Upon  passing  through  an  unidentified  vil- 
lage, we  found  it  deserted  and  nothing  but 
a  heap  of  ruins.  The  surrounding  country 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  see  resembled  the  lid 
of  a  pepper  box,  being  full  of  shell  holes. 
Many  an  oath  came  from  the  fellows,  in  the 
dark,  as  they  stumbled  into  the  shell  holes 
full  of  water. 

At  last  we  reached  our  billets.  Here,  at 
least,  there  were  signs  of  life.  Troops  and 
transports  were  passing  us  continuously,  but 
we  knew  nevertheless  that  we  were  near  the 
firing  line,  for  we  could  hear  the  bursting  of 
shells  and  see  the  flashes.  The  country  was 
a  little  more  hilly  here,  as  far  as  we  could 
see  in  the  semi-darkness.  We  were  more 
than  glad  to  get  into  a  stable  or  barn;  it 
meant  a  chance  to  get  dry  and  to  stretch  our 
overworked  limbs. 

After  a  little  while  we  lined  up  in  the  farm 
yard  and  got  some  hot  bully-beef  stew  in 
our  canteens,  a  two-pound  loaf  among  eight 
of  us,  some  jam  (needless  to  say  "apple  and 

134 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

plum"),  and  a  "daud"  of  cheese;  also  a  quar- 
ter-pound tin  of  Golden  Flake  cigarettes  be- 
tween two,  and,  as  a  sort  of  dessert,  we  got 
the  mail  from  Blighty!  Happy?  why  the 
word  doesn't  express  it!  We  were  simply 
elevated  a  million  feet  in  the  air — tired  as  we 
were. 

We  discussed  and  played  the  different  foot- 
ball league  games  over  and  over  again  as  they 
were  described  in  the  newspapers  we  had 
just  received.  We  imagined  ourselves  once 
more  among  the  spectators  at  a  cup-tie  match 
between  the  Celtic  and  Dundee  at  Ibrox  Park. 

For  a  time  war  was  entirely  forgotten;  but 
only  for  a  time!  With  a  sudden  "jerk"  we 
would  be  brought  back  to  our  senses  and  our 
present  whereabouts  by  the  voice  of  the 
orderly  corporal  asking  whether  Private  Mc- 
Neil, or  Lance-Corporal  Watson,  or  perhaps 
Corporal  McGregor  had  been  seen  down  the 
line  wounded;  or  was  he  dead?  It  was  war, 
all  right,  and  not  football  we  were  playing  at! 

Jock  Hunter  and  I  were  still  "muckin'-in" 
pals,  sharing  our  rations  and  troubles  alike. 
Very  soon  the  party  broke,  each  man  making 
for  his  allotted  place  to  rest.  I  can  recall 

135 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

so  vividly  the  feeling  that  came  over  me  as 
I  lay  down  on  that  straw.  It  was  identical 
with  that  which  I  had  felt  after  coming  back 
from  a  charge  that  had  been  a  touch  struggle ! 
I  fell  asleep  sighing  and  wondering  how  soon 
it  would  be  when  my  letters  would  find  no 
claimant  for  them! 

We  passed  the  next  day  writing  letters, 
scraping  the  mud  off  our  clothes,  and  at  rifle 
inspection.  More  men  joined  us.  One  of 
the  new  arrivals  lent  me  his  razor,  and  I 
performed,  what  was,  to  me,  the  awful  task 
of  shaving.  It  made  me  feel  like  a  new  man, 
and  they  said  I  looked  it.  We  were  told  that 
we  would  no  doubt  have  a  few  days*  rest, 
and  then  move  to  Dixmude  or  some  town 
with  a  name  like  that.  We  were  instructed 
not  to  leave  our  billets,  and  told  that  when- 
ever we  heard  a  boche  plane  overhead  we 
should  make  for  cover,  or  stand  perfectly 
still  with  our  backs  to  the  walls  of  the  farm 
houses,  without  stirring,  until  the  machine 
was  out  of  sight.  That  day  we  noticed  a  few 
of  Fritz's  sausage  balloons  in  the  direction 
of  the  firing  line. 

That  night  our  officer,  Lieutenant  McRae, 
136 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

came  round  fully  equipped;  one  look  at  him 
was  enough;  we  knew  there  was  to  be  no 
more  "dossing"  in  the  soft  straw  for  us. 

"Fall  in  at  the  double,  men!  We  have  to 
take  over  a  new  section  of  trenches  not  far 
from  here."  Such  was  the  greeting  he  gave 
us.  We  got  into  "harness"  all  right,  but 
how  we  grouched  and  "cussed"! 

After  lining  up  on  the  muddy  road  with  the 
remainder  of  the  battalion,  the  usual  order 
was  issued:  "All  fags  out;  no  talking!" 

We  started  off,  wading  through  mud;  with 
every  now  and  then  an  occasional  halt  and 
more  grouching  in  the  ranks.  With  three 
hours  of  this  to  our  credit,  we  found  ourselves 
zigzagging  round  little  hillocks  along  narrow 
muddy  cart  roads.  We  passed  a  concealed 
battery  of  small  howitzers.  Some  of  the 
English  chaps  noticed  that  we  were  "jocks" 
(the  name  the  English  give  the  kilties)  and 
began  cheering  us  up  with: 

"Down't  wish  y'  enny  'arm — but  ye'r  gowin' 
ta  'ave  an  'ell  of  an  'ot  tyme,  you  Jocks!" 

We  had  ploughed  our  way  through  the  mud 
only  a  few  hundred  yards  beyond  the  battery 
when  my  nostrils  sensed  that  there  must 

137 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

have  been  some  killing  going  on  in  the  vicin- 
ity. A  little  farther  on  we  came  to  an  open 
section  and  turned  to  the  right'  just  before 
making  a  small  incline.  I  could  see  a  few 
wrecked  transport  wagons  and  dead  horses. 
We  remained  behind  a  hillock  and  were  told 
that  we  were  near  the  enemy.  We  were  about 
to  enter  trenches  which  lay  quite  close  to 
the  German  lines  our  officer  told  us,  adding 
that  we  could  have  reached  this  point  from 
our  billets  in  half  an  hour,  but  that  it  was 
necessary  for  us  to  make  the  exceedingly 
long  detour.  Most  of  us  knew  that  this  was 
the  direction  in  which  we  had  seen  the  sau- 
sage balloon,  which  brought  back  the  mem- 
ory of  the  heavy  firing. 

We  got  into  the  natural  ditches,  which 
served  us  as  trenches.  We  did  not  relieve 
any  troops  at  this  place,  and  there  were  no 
signs  of  any  having  been  here,  but  on  both 
flanks  at  some  distance  off,  there  were  regi- 
ments entrenched.  The  situation  was  not 
one  in  the  least  to  be  desired.  We  were  prac- 
tically on  an  open  space. 

We  were  just  in  the  act  of  starting  work 
with  our  entrenching  tools  when  all  at  once 

138 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

— "s-c-ch-eew!" — and  the  sky  was  alight 
with  a  flare  rocket.  There  was  no  necessity 
for  orders  to  hug  the  earth;  we  just  simply 
flopped  on  our  faces.  Then  it  seemed  as  if 
the  whole  of  the  German  artillery  opened 
fire.  We  did  not  dare  even  to  look  up  for 
quite  some  time.  However,  it  seemed  that 
we  were  not  the  party  at  which  the  firing 
had  been  concentrated;  one  by  one  our  boys 
ventured  to  peep  over  in  the  direction  of  the 
flashes.  The  whizzing  and  groaning  of  the 
shells  overhead  was  terrific,  but  they  passed 
high.  During  the  flashes,  I  looked  over  the 
open  space  in  front  of  us.  We  were  occupying 
a  sort  of  high  ground  with  slight  mounds. 
To  our  right  flank  the  country  seemed  more 
regular. 

So  far  none  of  us  had  been  struck,  and  we 
prepared  to  dig  in  properly.  We  had  hardly 
levelled  out  our  parapet,  when  an  infernal 
noise  of  machine-gun  and  rifle  fire  let  loose 
on  our  right  flank  some  hundreds  of  yards  off. 
Some  of  our  look-out  sentries  seemingly  got 
a  bit  nervous  and  commenced  firing  too — 
at  nothing.  Then  the  whole  line  took  it  up. 
This  racket  kept  up  fully  twenty  minutes — 

139 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

and  we  had  not  seen  as  much  as  a  shadow. 
Shortly  after  this,  Major  Murray,  our  acting 
Commanding  Officer,  came  along  the  line  and 
gave  orders  to  strengthen  our  position  as  the 
Germans  were  expected  to  make  a  big  charge 
along  the  whole  front  in  the  morning.  I  was 
then  told  to  select  a  man  from  my  company 
(D)  and  go  out  between  the  lines  to  secure 
all  the  information  possible  with  regard  to  the 
distance  of  the  German  lines  from  ours. 
Particularly,  I  was  instructed  to  locate  the 
places  where  they  could  crawl  up  in  our  di- 
rection without  being  seen. 

There  was  no  use  asking  for  a  volunteer 
for  no  sane  person  longed  for  this  risky  job, 
so  I  approached  a  strapping  young  fellow  by 
the  name  of  Lawson  and  accosted  him  with: 

"Lawson,  coming  with  me?" 

"I'm  with  you,"  was  his  reply.  Taking  up 
his  rifle,  which  had  been  leaning  against  the 
parapet,  he  added,  as  an  afterthought:  "But, 
whaur  are  ye  bound  fur  ?" 

"We're  bound  for  the  German  lines,  to  get 
information,"  I  answered.  I  added  that  he 
had  better  hand  over  his  keepsakes  to  a  chum 
— the  keepsakes  that  he'd  want  his  mother 

140 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

or  his  lass  to  receive — as  we  might  not  come 
back  again. 

Dark  as  it  was,  I  yet  could  see  his  chin 
fall  and  his  face  pale.  With  a  very  serious 
look  and  without  another  word  he  emptied 
his  pockets.  Very  thoughtfully  he  took  two 
packets  of  "Woodbine"  cigarettes  out  of  his 
haversack  and  handed  them  over  to  a  chap 
sitting  on  the  fire  step  with:  "Here,  Donald, 
ye  ken  what  tae  dae  wi'  these  if  Ah'm  not 
back  afore  mor-r-nin'." 

We  crawled  out  for  about  fifty  yards,  then, 
as  there  were  little  mounds  in  front  of  and 
behind  us,  we  got  up  to  our  feet. 

We  proceeded  very  cautiously,  round  the 
many  little  mounds,  stumbling  through  shal- 
low ditches,  and  crawling  over  the  higher  spots. 

"Y'  seem  tae  hae  th'  heng  o'  thees,"  said 
Lawson,  as  he  stumbled  and  crawled  behind 
me.  "Ah'll  dae  ma*  best  tae  follow  your  lead. 
It's  a  braw  new  beesness  tae  me."  [He  was 
referring  to  my  method  of  keeping  to  natural 
cover.] 

"I've  been  trained  in  scouting,"  I  replied. 
"Just  do  as  I  do,  and  with  anything  like  luck 
we'll  come  out  all  whole." 

141 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Memory  took  me  back  to  the  days  I  had 
spent  in  scouting  practice  in  India,  under 
Major  Bruce,  the  famous  scoutmaster  of  the 
2nd  Battalion,  Fifth  Gurkhas — forty  days, 
once,  from  Dunga-Gully  up  to  the  borders  of 
Cashmere  and  back.  Little  did  I  think,  in 
those  days,  that  I'd  ever  find  myself  sneaking 
my  way  through  the  flats  of  Flanders,  hiding 
from  enemies  in  the  air  as  well  as  on  the  earth. 

Now  and  again  we  heard  a  rifle  shot — at 
times  quite  a  distance  away;  then  again,  quite 
close.  Often  we'd  hear  the  "swish"  until  at 
last,  the  bullet  found  its  mark,  with  a  "click." 

We  must  have  been  out  for  over  two 
hours,  before  we  neared  the  German  position. 
At  last  we  could  hear  an  occasional  mumbling 
of  hushed  voices,  and  make  out  the  dim  out- 
line of  wire  entanglements.  The  German 
position  seemed  to  be  on  a  little  plateau. 

While  we  were  lying  on  our  bellies,  my 
partner  could  turn  his  face  and  look  at  me, 
but  neither  of  us  dared  utter  a  word. 

Fifteen  minutes  seemed  like  a  century.  I 
was  more  used  to  it  than  my  partner,  but 
even  at  that  I  must  admit  that  I  was  as 
nervous  as  a  man  that  is  about  to  have  a 

142 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

death  sentence  pronounced  on  him.  It  is  the 
feeling  that  possesses  every  man  that  patrols 
"No  Man's  Land." 

I  motioned  to  Lawson,  and  we  crawled 
away  like  worms  that  had  been  overlooked 
by  a  hungry  crow.  We  reached  our  trenches 
quickly  after  getting  into  the  broken  ground; 
it  was  not  until  we  had  actually  entered  them 
that  he  opened  his  mouth.  Then,  approach- 
ing his  friend,  Donald,  he  demanded  his  fags. 
In  a  whisper,  he  triumphantly  announced 
that  we  had  been  near  enough  to  hear  the 
Germans  talking  in  their  trenches. 

I  went  to  our  officer  and  reported. 

It  was  in  the  morning  after  "stand  down," 
when  our  rum  issue  had  been  passed,  that 
we  learned  what  the  racket  had  been  the 
previous  night.  The  Germans  had  tried  a 
night  attack  on  the  King's  Royal  Rifles. 

The  morning  was  cold  and  misty.  It  was 
easy  to  see  that  we  were  about  six  hundred 
yards  from  Fritz's  trenches,  and  that  his, 
like  ours,  were  on  slightly  higher  ground  than 
that  which  lay  between  the  lines.  There  was 
a  farm  house  here  and  there,  behind  us. 

I  could  see  a  line  of  trenches  on  either 
143 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

flank  but  the  one  on  the  right  was  most 
easily  perceptible.  There  was  an  open  space 
at  the  end  of  our  battalion  line  on  the  right 
flank,  and  our  left  flank  was  bent  back 
slightly.  We  also  learned  that  we  had  moved 
into  this  position  without  the  Huns  knowing 
that  we  were  near.  I  could  see  the  boche 
balloons  some  distance  behind  the  enemy  lines. 


144 


CHAPTER  TEN 

IT  was  still  morning  when  it  was  reported 
by  one  of  our  look-out  men,  who  had 
been  scanning  the  boche  lines  with  a  pair 
of  field  glasses  (only  his  head  showing  above 
the  top  of  the  trench  made  for  observation 
purposes),  that  the  Germans   were   walking 
about  the  tops  of  their  trenches  in  a  careless 
fashion. 

Naturally  some  of  the  last  batch  of  men  to 
join  us  wanted  to  have  a  pop  at  them,  but 
our  officers  said  no — to  let  sleeping  dogs  lie. 
Most  of  us  peeped  over  and  saw  them.  Doing 
so,  my  eye  caught  a  large  number  that  had 
concentrated  behind  a  mound  to  our  right 
front — directly  in  advance  of  the  English 
troops  that  held  a  section  of  trenches  on  our 
right  flank.  I  should  judge  that  there  were 
about  a  hundred  of  the  enemy, — some  holding 
up  white  handkerchiefs  in  the  lead,  and  a 
mass  of  them  a  little  distance  behind.  My 
heart  was  in  my  throat,  and  I  wondered 

145 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

whether  the  K.  R.  R.'s  were  aware  of  their 
presence.  I  had  heard  stories  of  Germans 
with  flags  of  truce.  But  so,  evidently,  had 
the  commanders  of  the  Rifles,  for  soon  there 
was  enacted  before  me  a  tragedy  which  I  shall 
never  forget. 

About  one  hundred  of  the  Rifles  went  for- 
ward to  bring  in  this  batch  of  Germans  who 
were  advancing  apparently  to  surrender.  They 
advanced  very  slowly  and  cautiously.  Just 
when  they  were  within  short  range,  the  Ger- 
mans in  front,  bearing  white  flags  but  no 
arms,  threw  themselves  onto  the  ground, 
machine  guns  began  firing  over  their  heads 
and  those  with  rifles  began  firing  point  blank 
into  the  ranks  of  the  British. 

The  K.  R.  R.'s  were  ready  for  them. 
They  opened  up  like  a  fan,  their  machine  guns 
and  rifles  began  crashing  and  the  Huns  were 
thrown  into  confusion.  They  dropped  like 
clay  pipes  in  a  shooting  gallery.  The  crews 
of  the  boche  machine  guns  were  picked  off 
by  the  riflemen,  and  the  K.  R.  R.'s  machine 
guns  kept  on  pouring  lead  into  the  mass.  It 
was  dreadful!  I  saw  piles  of  Huns,  dead  and 
wounded,  the  latter  waving  like  a  shock  of 

146 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

hay  with  some  one  underneath  it  trying  to 
get  out.  Their  officers,  in  the  rear,  shot  down 
man  after  man  who  tried  to  run.  They  drove 
them  forward  like  bullocks  to  the  slaughter, 
for  many  of  the  Germans  were  too  confused 
to  shoot  and  scores  had  thrown  away  their 
rifles.  Suddenly  the  K.  R.  R.'s  machine  guns 
became  silent.  For  a  few  seconds  the  rifle  fire 
became  faster  and  more  furious.  Then  it 
stopped.  Steel  bayonets  glinted  as  the  K.  R. 
R.'s  charged.  There  was  no  mercy  shown. 
There  were  no  prisoners  taken.  Of  the  five 
thousand  Germans,  who  had  gone  out  to  do 
murder  in  cold  blood,  I  do  not  believe  five 
hundred  got  away.  They  were  practically 
annihilated.  The  bayonets  finished  the  work 
that  the  machine  guns  and  rifles  had  started. 
What  would  you  have?  Men  would  not  spare 
a  nest  of  venomous  snakes.  It  was  a  just 
retribution,  but  my  stomach  turned  at  it. 
None  who  had  not  seen  it  could  even  picture 
the  sight. 

For  the  next  few  days  we  had  it  "cushy," 
except  for  boche  shrapnel  showering  our 
trenches  at  intervals,  daily. 

The  cold,  however,  had  increased  enough 

147 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

to  cause  much  discomfort.  It  was  always 
cold,  and  especially  so  when  there  was  a 
fierce  wind  and  the  rain  drenched  us.  It  was 
the  common  thing  for  the  men  to  be  up  to  their 
knees  in  water  and  slush. 

We  had  been  almost  two  weeks  in  this  po- 
sition when  we  noticed  queer  happenings  in 
a  farm  house  a  few  hundred  yards  behind  our 
lines.  The  watchfulness  of  our  officers  re- 
vealed the  significance  of  some  apparently 
trifling  things. 

In  the  daytime,  the  shade  on  a  window 
facing  the  German  line  would  frequently  be 
moved.  Sometimes  it  would  be  drawn  the 
full  length  of  the  window;  then,  if  the  Ger- 
man artillery  had  been  pounding  away  at 
our  right  flank,  immediately  it  would  switch 
in  the  direction  of  our  batteries.  Sometimes 
the  shade  would  be  only  half  way  down. 
More  than  once  I  saw  a  woman  at  this  same 
window;  and  sometimes  she  would  be  leading 
a  cow  about  some  distance  behind  our  lines. 
At  night  a  light  would  be  seen  now  and  again 
moving  past  the  window. 

Agents  of  the  British  Intelligence  Depart- 
ment, summoned  to  the  front  by  our  officers, 

148 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

discovered  that  a  complete  system  of  signalling 
was  carried  on  between  the  people  in  the 
isolated  farm  house  and  the  Germans.  Three 
men  and  a  woman  were  marched  out  of  the 
house  and  taken  away.  After  that,  our  con- 
cealed batteries,  in  new  positions,  hadn't  a 
single  casualty  for  days,  whereas,  previously, 
they  had  been  almost  constantly  under  heavy 
and  accurate  fire! 

During  the  few  days  following  the  "white 
flag"  affair,  when  the  bodies'  shelling  was 
not  quite  so  steady,  we  passed  our  time  play- 
ing cards.  Occasionally  one  of  the  fellows, 
who  had  split  a  piece  of  wood  at  one  end, 
would  insert  a  card  in  it  and  hold  it  over  the 
parapet.  Nine  times  out  of  ten  a  German 
sniper — there  were  many  of  them  in  the 
vicinity — would  put  a  hole  in  it  with  a 
bullet. 

These  snipers  caused  us  a  great  deal  of 
trouble,  particularly  when  we  wanted  water, 
which  was  procurable  only  at  a  little  brook 
on  our  left  flank.  To  get  it  was  such  a  risky 
proposition  that  there  were  no  "detail  parties" 
formed  in  the  daytime,  and  any  one  who 
went  in  quest  of  it,  did  so  at  his  own  risk. 

149 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Many  a  one  who  did  so  venture  paid  for  his 
daring  with  his  life.  The  snipers  were  always 
busy,  even  at  night,  and  seemed  to  have  a 
line  on  this  spot. 

A  few  of  the  fellows,  rather  than  risk  going 
to  the  brook,  filled  their  water  bottles  from 
a  duck  pond — full  of  a  dirty,  green,  slimy 
liquid — situated  behind  our  line.  The  result 
was  sickness  to  most  of  those  that  drank  it 
and  nearly  all  had  to  be  sent  to  hospital. 

Late  one  afternoon  our  section  (thirteen 
men)  was  all  together.  Four  of  us  were  play- 
ing cards  in  an  effort  at  distraction,  for  we 
were  nearly  insane  from  the  lack  of  drinking 
water.  For  two  days  we  had  had  to  eat  our 
bully  beef  and  biscuits  dry.  We  made  it  up 
that  we  should  play  a  game  of  "phat"  (a 
common  card  game  among  the  Tommies),  and 
that  the  one  with  the  lowest  count  would  have 
to  take  the  section's  water  bottles  and  fill 
them  at  the  brook.  This — to  use  a  Yankee 
expression — was  a  "cinch"  for  me,  or  at 
least  I  thought  so  at  the  beginning  of  the 
game;  and  so  did  the  others,  who,  because 
of  my  record  as  a  winner  at  the  game  were 
of  the  opinion  that  I  couldn't  lose. 

150 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

However,  toward  the  middle  of  the  game  I 
became  nervous.  So  far  I  had  taken  only 
two  tricks.  Things  got  worse  as  the  playing 
progressed,  and  it  wound  up  with  me  the  loser. 

Without  a  word,  they  collected  the  thirteen 
bottles  and  hung  them  on  my  left  shoulder 
like  decorations  on  a  Christmas  tree. 

Silently  I  made  off.  I  reached  the  brook 
without  mishap. 

I  had  almost  half  of  the  bottles  filled  when 
—zip — a  bullet  struck  very  close  to  me.  I 
tumbled  into  the  water,  pulling  the  bottles 
with  me,  and,  in  a  lying  position,  continued 
filling  them.  This  was  not  what  one  might 
call  a  comfortable  or  a  convenient  position  in 
which  to  fill  water  bottles.  They  filled  very 
slowly  indeed. 

As  soon  as  they  were  full,  I  placed  them  on 
my  shoulders;  rose,  dripping,  from  the  water; 
and  made  for  our  line.  I  had  not  gone  more 
than  twenty  paces  when  a  bullet  struck  close 
at  my  heels.  I  jumped  and  looked  upward, 
hoping  to  fool  the  sniper  into  thinking  he 
was  firing  too  high,  causing  him  to  set  his 
sight  for  a  shorter  range.  The  next  shot  fell 
shorter  still.  I  looked  up  again  and  hastened 

151 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

my  pace.  A  third  shot  visibly  struck  a  rock 
and  enabled  the  sniper  to  correct  his  range. 

Almost  immediately  after  came  another 
bullet,  which  I  knew  had  got  something  about 
me.  Instantly  I  flopped  down  and  lay  still. 
There  was  more  scattered  firing  from  the 
German  lines  and  I  was  trembling  with 
"nerves.'* 

At  last,  I  could  not  stand  it  longer.  I 
was  afraid  the  sniper  would  fire  at  me  again 
—not  an  uncommon  practice  with  the  boche 
sniper,  who,  when  he  drops  his  man,  usually 
sends  over  a  make-sure  shot.  So  I  sprang  to 
my  feet  and  rushed  for  the  trenches,  arriving 
there  in  safety. 

When  I  got  into  our  section  I  found  my 
pals  sitting  around  and  looking  very  gloomy. 
Upon  seeing  me  they  greeted  me  with: 

:<Ye've  been  a  h—  -  o'  a  time  awa'.  We 
were  juist  beginnin'  tae  think  we'd  lost  our 
watter  bottles." 

When  I  unloaded  my  cargo  I  found  that  two 
of  the  bottles  had  been  pierced  by  a  bullet. 
Each  man  of  the  section  made  a  thirsty  effort 
to  lay  hands  on  his  own  bottle.  I  was  left 
with  the  two  damaged  ones  besides  my  own. 

152 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Then  they  told  me  how  a  shell  had  exploded 
and  killed  two  of  the  card  players — the  owners 
of  the  damaged  bottles.  The  water  that  was 
left  in  these  was  distributed  among  the  others. 

Patrol  work,  mostly  at  night,  continued  to 
be  my  chief  duty.  On  one  occasion  I  lost  my 
bearings,  and  presently  found  myself  almost 
upon  one  of  the  boche  listening  posts. 

"So  long  as  I  have  come  thus  far,  I  will 
edge  in  and  take  a  chance,"  I  said  to  myself. 

I  knew  it  would  be  almost  as  dangerous 
to  go  back  as  to  go  forward,  for  at  any  mo- 
ment a  man  might  crane  his  neck  above  the 
parapet,  see  me  moving,  and  fire.  Then  there 
was  the  momentary  chance  that  a  star  bomb 
would  light  the  heavens  and  all  the  earth 
between  the  lines,  in  which  case  a  thousand 
rifles  would  begin  sputtering  at  everything 
that  moved  or  seemed  to  be  alive.  Each 
second  I  expected  it  to  come.  My  nerves 
felt  as  if  they  were  drawn  taut — taut  as  the 
barbed  wire  which  the  boches  string  so  tight 
that  if  it  is  cut  in  the  night  it  will  twang 
like  the  string  of  a  violin.  But  the  quick 
shot  in  the  night  did  not  come,  and  I  wriggled 
forward  through  the  wire. 

153 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

I  was  almost  at  the  edge  of  the  parapet 
of  the  listening  post.  I  heard  voices  whis- 
pering in  German.  Some  one  was  scrambling 
up  over  the  parapet.  How  was  I  to  get 
away?  I  could  not,  so  I  lay  on  my  belly 
and  buried  my  face  in  the  earth — the  earth 
which  should  be  wholesome  and  life  giving, 
but  which  stunk  with  unspeakable  things. 

Three  heads  appeared  above  the  parapet. 
Shoulders  followed,  and  cautiously  a  patrol 
of  three  men  wriggled  out  from  the  listening 
post  and  then  separated.  One  of  them,  in 
getting  out,  slipped,  and  I  could  hear  him 
" strafing"  under  his  breath,  as  he  vanished 
into  the  night.  Another  head  thrust  itself 
above  the  parapet.  I  was  sure  a  pair  of  eyes 
were  staring  at  me,  though  I  could  not  see 
them  in  the  dark. 

Once  more  I  lay  as  if  dead.  "What's  the 
difference?"  I  thought;  in  a  few  moments, 
probably,  I  would  be,  and  then  I  should  not 
mind  the  sight  or  the  odour  of  what  was 
around  me. 

The  man  in  the  listening  post  reached 
down  for  something  at  his  feet.  I  was  sure 
that  he  was  going  to  hurl  a  grenade  in  my 

154 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

direction.  Something  came  hurtling  through 
the  air.  I  sunk  my  teeth  into  my  lip  to  keep 
from  crying  out,  and  wondered  how  the  ex- 
plosion would  feel — whether  there  was  any 
anguish  in  being  torn  to  bits  instantaneously. 
The  dark  object  plumped  onto  the  ground 
at  my  side  and  bumped  against  my  ribs. 
How  long  it  took  for  it  to  explode!  Then 
I  knew  it  was  only  a  stone.  I  continued  to 
lie  as  still  as  one  dead. 

Another  stone  struck  my  shoulders.  The 
sentry  did  not  wish  to  rouse  the  whole  line 
and  start  a  wastage  of  ammunition  by  causing 
a  thousand  rounds  or  so  to  be  fired  uselessly 
into  the  night,  as  would  probably  be  the  case 
should  he  discharge  his  rifle  or  throw  a  gre- 
nade. He  crawled  up  over  the  parapet  and 
wriggled  toward  me.  I  tried  to  prepare  my- 
self to  spring  up  when  the  time  came,  but  I 
dared  not  so  much  as  move  a  foot  to  get  a 
better  grip  on  the  ground.  He  himself  did 
not  dare  to  rise.  He  knew  that  his  silhouette 
would  draw  fire  from  the  trenches.  It  would 
be  like  a  battle  between  snakes,  both  of  us 
on  the  ground  there,  fighting  each  other  on 
our  bellies. 

155 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

I  saw  the  dull  gleam  of  his  bayonet.  Still 
I  did  not  dare  to  let  him  know  I  was  alive. 
He  was  only  inches  from  me.  I  could  hear 
his  deep  breathing.  He  was  not  sure  whether 
or  not  I  was  a  corpse,  but  he  was  going  to 
take  no  chances.  He  lunged  with  the  steel. 
I  managed  to  jam  the  butt  of  my  rifle  against 
his  head.  It  disconcerted  him,  but  there  was 
not  enough  force  behind  the  blow,  struck 
from  my  awkward  position,  to  stun  him. 
He  rolled  upon  me.  I  felt  for  his  throat. 
He  was  a  big,  greasy  boche  and  my  fingers 
could  scarcely  encircle  his  neck,  but  I  squeezed 
and  squeezed,  for  my  life  depended  upon  my 
eight  fingers  and  my  two  thumbs.  If  I  did 
not  throttle  him,  he  would  kill  me. 

He  was  getting  weaker.  I  felt  his  muscles 
relax.  I  could  see  his  eyes.  I  do  not  think 
I  shall  ever  forget  them.  They  bulged  from 
their  sockets  and  it  seemed  that  they  would 
pop  from  his  head  and  strike  me  in  the  face. 
It  sickened  me,  but  it  was  his  life  or  mine. 
He  was  clawing  frantically  but  weakly.  Now 
he  was  still.  It  was  brutal,  but  war  is  brutal. 

After  emptying  his  pockets  I  crawled  to 
the  edge  of  the  dugout  listening  post.  Inside 

156 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

were  three  men,  two  lying  in  the  bottom  of 
the  hole,  the  third  sitting  with  his  back 
against  the  wall  of  the  excavation.  The 
boche  I  had  just  left  probably  had  disobeyed 
orders  in  crawling  out  without  awakening 
one  of  them.  The  error  cost  him  his  life  and 
saved  mine. 

For  a  second  as  I  peered  over  the  edge  of 
the  hole  I  had  thoughts  of  a  daring  deed,  but 
it  was  better  to  get  back  to  our  lines  with 
the  contents  of  the  first  man's  pockets,  which 
no  doubt  afforded  information  for  pur  staff, 
and  so  I  returned — battered  and  torn  and 
exhausted. 

After  this,  in  recognition  of  my  work  as  a 
scout,  I  was  offered  the  rank  of  a  non-com- 
missioned officer,  but  I  did  not  wish  it.  They 
were  picking  off  the  non-coms  too  fast  to 
suit  me,  and  there  was  danger  enough  in  the 
work  I  was  doing. 


157 


CHAPTER  ELEVEN 

AFTER   spending   a   few  more  days  in 
this  last,  very  warm  position,  we  moved 
to  billets  a  little  way  off  behind  our  left 
flank,    and    we    certainly    needed    the    rest. 
There  was  no  indication   that  these  billets 
had  been  used  before  by  our  troops.     Jock 
Hunter  and  I  were  assigned  to  a  barn,  and 
you  may  be  sure  I  was  delighted  at  the  pros- 
pect of  literally  "hitting  the  hay"  as  the 
Americans  say. 

As  there  were  chickens  running  around, 
even  over  every  part  of  the  thatched  house, 
Jock  and  I  went  in  search  of  eggs,  for  oh! 
how  we  longed  for  a  change  of  diet!  For 
weeks  it  had  been  bully  beef  and  biscuits, 
and  then  biscuits  and  bully  beef.  In  our 
search,  we  climbed  up  the  ladder  to  the  attic, 
which  we  found  to  be  very  spacious,  with 
heaps  of  straw  on  the  floor  here  and  there. 
The  walls  of  the  structure,  I  should  judge, 
were  about  four  feet  thick,  and  there  was  a 

158 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

space  that  wide  where  the  parapet  of  the 
wall  and  thatching  came  near  together. 

On  reaching  the  attic  we  could  hear  the 
voices  of  our  fellows  in  the  farm  yard  below. 
The  noise  came  through  the  opening  between 
the  parapet  and  thatching  which  was  sup- 
ported by  beams.  The  aperture  must  have 
been  about  a  foot  in  height.  Approaching 
this — with  the  intention  of  playing  a  trick 
on  the  boys  by  throwing  a  piece  of  stone  from 
the  top  of  the  wall — I  noticed,  dangling  over 
the  edge,  a  black  leather  strap.  Carelessly 
I  gave  it  a  sharp  tug,  when  out  came  a 
"Colt,"  the  handle  of  which  I  instantly 
caught.  I  scarcely  had  it  in  my  hands  when 
a  man's  head  popped  up  and  I  found  myself 
facing  a  German  soldier.  He  started  to 
reach  to  his  side  but  I  had  him  covered.  I 
do  not  know  whether  he  or  I  was  the  more 
greatly  surprised. 

"Hands  up,  ye  swine!"  I  shouted,  holding 
him  cowed  with  his  own  revolver,  although 
I  was  entirely  ignorant  of  its  mechanism, 
and  did  not  even  know  how  to  release  the 
safety  catch. 

He  slid  out  of  the  recess  under  the  thatch 
159 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

which  he  had  been  occupying  and  stood  on  the 
floor.    With  his  hands  up,  he  kept  muttering: 

"Mercy!  Kamerad!  Kamerad!" 

Jock  seemed  stunned  at  this  sudden  and 
unthought  of  "find." 

I  asked  him  to  tie  the  boche's  hands,  which 
he  did  with  his  rifle  pull-through,  and  we 
marched  him  down  to  the  officers'  quarters. 
The  officers  were  just  preparing  to  eat,  and 
were  astounded  at  the  sudden  appearance  of 
the  boche  in  the  doorway,  as  we  made  him 
walk  in  first.  We  left  the  prisoner  and  his 
Colt  with  the  officers.  Then  we  returned  to 
search  the  loft. 

In  the  deep  recess  over  the  wall  we  found 
a  French  rifle,  a  British ^rifle,  several  days' 
rations,  ammunition,  and  a  warm  blanket— 
which  Jock  and  I  snuggled  under  that  night. 
It  was  a  sniper's  post  and  afforded  an  excel- 
lent view  of  part  of  our  lines,  especially  the 
spot  at  the  brook  where  so  many  of  our  boys 
"went  West"  in  the  act  of  getting  water, 
and  where  I  had  had  a  narrow  escape. 

The  next  morning,  after  reveille,  a  corporal 
and  three  men  who  had  done  guard  over  the 
sniper  got  orders  to  take  him  to  a  given 

160 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

place,  which  was  about  three  miles  behind 
our  lines.  Also  they  were  ordered  to  report 
back  within  "fifteen  minutes  from  starting 
time." 

We  were  promised  a  few  days'  rest  here, 
but  the  following  day,  toward  nightfall,  we 
were  shelled  out  of  the  place  by  the  bodies' 
heavy  artillery,  the  "coal  boxes"  landing  all 
around  the  place.  We  had  scarcely  time  to 
get  out  of  it.  Luckily  enough,  no  one 
"clicked."  We  then  moved  to  trenches  near 
La  Bassee.  Here  also  was  a  great  number  of 
troops  concentrating. 

We  had  heard  that  our  native  troops  from 
India  were  to  hold  part  of  the  lines  near  us. 
Also  we  had  been  told  of  the  great  work  the 
Canadians  had  done  recently  around  this  sec- 
tion, and  we  were  looked  upon  to  do  the 
same.  It  was  now  December,  and  the  sleet 
and  rain  poured  on  us  for  the  first  few  days 
without  cessation. 

In  the  trenches  here,  in  some  parts  we 
were  knee  deep  in  slush,  and|this  had  a  very 
dispiriting  effect.  It,  together  with  the  con- 
tinuous downpour  of  ram  and  sleet  and 
Fritz's  shelling — which  never  ceased — reduced 

161 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

\- ' 

us  to  a  state  of  positive  misery.  We  fared 
badly  enough,  but  we  wondered  how  the 
native  troops  (who  were  now  on  our  left 
flank),  used  to  a  warm  climate,  could  stand 
it. 

';We  got  more  tinned  rations  and  in  greater 
variety,  here,  than  I  can  remember  ever  hav- 
ing before.  There  was  "  Maconochie  "-—a 
soup  with  directions  to  boil  fifteen  minutes 
before  opening  the  tin; — which,  of  course, 
was  merely  satirical.  The  "Maconochie" 
was  never  warmed  until  it  had  reached  our 
stomachs.  However,  it  proved  a  very  ac- 
ceptable change  from  our  "bully  beef."  That 
is,  it  did  when  it  came.  It  didn't  come  often. 
We  also  had  tins  of  muckin  (butter)  which 
Tommy  says  is  a  very  good  quality. 

Another  tinned  product,  but  not  a  ration, 
reached  us  here.  It  was  the  famous  jam-tin 
hand  grenade  which  came  into  use  at  about 
that  time. 

Preparations  were  now  in  progress  for  an 
attack  of  greater  magnitude  than  any  we  had 
yet  taken  part  in.  With  a  number  of  other 
scouts,  I  was  sent  out  to  examine  the  terrain 
over  which  our  men  would  advance.  The 

162 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

party  was  discovered  by  German  snipers, 
and  we  ran  back  to  our  lines  as  fast  as  we 
could  go.  A  piece  of  a  ricochet  shot  struck 
my  left  ankle,  but  only  slightly  injured  it 
on  account  of  my  heavy  spats  and  leather 
shoes,  so  that  by  having  a  tight  bandage 
applied  at  once  I  was  able  to  take  part  in 
the  attack. 

Hitherto  most  of  our  engagements  had 
been  more  or  less  surprise  affairs — that  is, 
we  would  get  word  of  the  enemy  just  about 
in  time  to  be  ready  for  him  when  the  actual 
charge  came.  This  time  it  was  different. 
We  had  been  told  what  time  we  would  go 
over  at  them.  We  had  to  sit  around  and 
wait.  Some  of  the  men  were  carefully  clean- 
ing their  rifles.  Others  ran  their  thumbs 
along  the  edges  of  their  bayonets.  Many  were 
writing  letters.  But  almost  every  face  that 
I  could  see  was  pale.  The  greater  part  of 
them  were  nervously  puffing  away  at  fags, 
very  often  unlit. 

Here  and  there  a  man  would  glance  at  his 
watch — furtively,  as  if  afraid  it  would  be 
thought  that  he  was  hoping  the  time  had  not 
yet  come.  Others  were  swearing  softly  and 

163 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

grumbling  because  they  could  not  charge  at 
once. 

Occasionally  a  man  would  joke  or  tell  a 
funny  story.  Those  who  heard  him  either 
looked  as  if  they  hadn't  heard  or  laughed  rather 
thinly.  It  is  one  thing  to  go  at  them  with 
steel  and  rifle,  but  quite  another  to  sit  around 
and  wait  for  the  short  blast  of  the  whistle 
which  sends  you  out  to  kill  or  to  be  killed. 

Our  artillery  was  pouring  shells  and  shrap- 
nel upon  the  Huns  and  their  guns  were  reply- 
ing. The  combat  wagons  with  the  ammuni- 
tion and  the  wagons  with  the  rations  had  to 
reach  us  through  a  curtain  of  fire.  One  hun- 
dred extra  cartridges  were  distributed  to 
every  man,  also  extra  tins  of  "  bully."  I 
was  on  my  way  to  regimental  headquarters 
with  a  message,  when  a  shell  squarely  struck 
a  transport  wagon.  It  was  obliterated.  Men 
were  torn  into  shreds.  I  saw  the  whole  fore- 
quarters  of  a  horse  blown. high  into  a  tree 
and  caught  there  in  a  crotch.  The  stretcher 
bearers  picked  up  some  of  the  men.  Some 
they  could  not  even  find.  I  was  soon  back 
again  in  the  firing  trench.  We  had  gouged 
out  little  footholds  to  help  us  over  the  top. 

164 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

At  last  it  came — the  little  shrill  metallic 
blast  we  had  been  waiting  for.  It  could  be 
heard  distinctly  above  the  roar  of  the  artillery. 
The  blood  surged  back  into  the  faces  of  the 
pale  men.  We  were  fighting  now.  It  was  dif- 
ferent from  the  waiting  and  thinking — the 
thinking  of  what  we  may  be  leaving  behind 
us  for  always. 

I  was  the  first  man  out  of  the  trench — 
not  that  I  was  brave,  but  because  I  had  al- 
ready learned  that  it  was  the  last  man  up 
and  the  last  man  down  who  usually  are  shot. 
I  sped  ahead  of  all  the  platoon;  for  in  that 
lay  safety. 

It  is  a  fact  that  men  in  trenches  will  fire 
at  the  mass  in  rear  rather  than  stop  to  aim 
at  a  single  runner  out  ahead.  Each  man 
seems  to  feel  that  he  is  sure  to  hit  someone 
if  he  fires  into  the  mass  and  that  another  will 
pick  off  the  leader. 


We  were  back  again  in  our  own  trenches. 
What  had  happened  in  the  charge  I  did  not 
know.  I  can  honestly  state  that  my  mind  is  a 
blank  for  the  period  of  time  which  elapsed  after 
I  ran  the  first  fifty  yards  toward  the  boches. 

165 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

I  was  sitting  on  the  fire-step.  We  had 
taken  their  trenches  and  had  been  recalled 
after  our  troops  from  the  rear  had  gone  for- 
ward to  prepare  the  captured  position  against 
the  counter  attack  which  would  surely  come. 

My  chum,  Jock  Hunter,  was  sitting  near  me. 

"Blow  *  Coffee  up,'  "  he  said  to  me,  laughing. 
I  thought  he  had  lost  his  senses.  I  stared  at 
him  blankly. 

"Blow  *  Coffee  up,5"  he  repeated,  pointing 
to  my  side. 

I  glanced  down  at  my  hip.  There  was  a 
battered  bugle  hanging  from  a  cord  over  my 
shoulder.  I  was  more  bewildered  than  ever, 
but  I  unslung  the  instrument  and  we  exam- 
ined it.  It  was  a  bugle  of  the  Potsdam 
Guards  and  there  were  thirteen  bullet  holes 
in  it. 

Jock  would  not  believe  that  I  did  not 
know  how  I  came  by  the  thing,  and  you 
may  find  it  difficult,  too,  to  accept  my  state- 
ment, but  it  is  a  fact.  I  do  not  know  how  I 
got  it.  The  period  of  the  charge  is  a  slice 
of  my  life  which  is  completely  gone  from 
my  memory.  I  do  not  know  what  sights  I 
saw  nor  what  sounds  I  heard. 

166 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

On  our  first  Sunday  in  this  position,  the 
German  artillery  became  quiet  about  ten 
o'clock,  and,  about  half  an  hour  later,  we 
heard  strains  of  music  from  beyond  the 
slightly  risen  ground  on  Fritz's  lines.  They 
were  holding  a  Sunday  service.  But  as  soon 
as  it  was  over,  we  were  greeted  with  a  couple 
of  hundred  shells  from  their  artillery,  so  we 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  sermon  must 
have  been  rotten. 

The  weather  conditions  here  were  so  bad 
that  a  number  of  our  fellows  were  sent  to 
the  base  hospital  with  frost-bite,  or  what  is 
known  now  as  "trench  feet."  They  suffered 
excruciating  pain.  I  saw  one  fellow  who  had 
to  have  his  shoe  cut  off;  the  foot  swelled  up 
instantly  to  very  great  size  and  was  almost  en- 
tirely black. 

As  a  supposed  protection  against  the  con- 
ditions which  had  caused  so  many  cases  of 
"trench  feet"  some  bureau  expert  over  in 
England  had  a  supply  of  rubber  boots  for- 
warded to  us.  I  have  seen  many  things 
which  were  useless  supplied  to  soldiers  but 
never  anything  to  equal  these  boots.  They 
were  so  loose  and  clumsy  that  they  materially 

167 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

interfered  with  the  action  of  walking  and 
they  were  just  of  a  height  to  be  entirely  sub- 
merged in  the  trench  mud,  leaving  the  wearer 
with  an  individual  and  separate  bucketful 
of  the  stuff  to  lift  with  each  foot.  I  heard 
many  a  pair  wished  on  the  Kaiser's  feet. 
Big  ladles  with  long  handles  also  were  distrib- 
uted among  us  to  be  used  in  scraping  out  the 
water  from  the  trenches,  and  each  of  us  took 
our  turn  in  acting  as  "chef,"  that  is,  ladling 
the  water  out  behind  the  trench  wall.  Occa- 
sionally where  a  fellow,  slow  in  throwing  it 
over,  would  hold  the  ladle  up  a  few  seconds 
too  long — ping! — a  bullet  would  go  through 
it.  If  we  wanted  to  sit  down  the  only  thing 
we  could  do  was  to  place  our  packs  and 
equipment  on  the  fire-step  and  sit  on  them. 

Our  position  was  somewhat  lower  than 
that  of  the  Germans,  as  they  occupied  a 
sort  of  ridge.  For  days  and  nights  at  a  time 
we  did  nothing  but  wait,  with  an  occasional 
raiding  party  or  artillery  encounter,  with 
now  and  again  a  heavy  bombardment,  to 
break  the  tedium. 

We  were  sitting  around  in  the  mud  one 
day  when,  all  of  a  sudden,  a  heavy  rifle  and 

168 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

machine-gun  fire  swept  along  our  trench. 
Then  we  heard  a  dull  muffled  roar  as  if  some 
tremendous  weight,  padded  heavily  with  bales 
of  cotton,  had  fallen  a  great  height.  That 
is  the  only  way  I  can  describe  the  sound. 
Instantly,  I  wondered  what  had  happened. 
I  do  not  suppose  it  was  a  second  later  before 
I  knew,  but  it  seemed  as  if  it  were  a  full 
minute.  The  earth  seemed  to  rock.  There 
was  a  swashing,  hissing  noise.  Mud,  water, 
and  stones  poured  down  all  around  us.  Mud- 
dy water  cascaded  into  our  trench.  Clamber- 
ing out  of  it  and  through  a  storm  of  bullets, 
we  made  for  our  reserve  trench.  Many  of 
our  men  fell  in  the  act  of  fleeing  for  shelter. 
This  was  the  result  of  the  Germans  having 
dammed  up  their  own  trench  wrhich  was  filled 
with  water,  and  dug  tunnels  in  our  direction 
as  far  as  they  possibly  could  without  our 
being  aware  of  it.  They  opened  the  dams 
just  after  commencing  the  firing.  Their  in- 
tention was  to  catch  with  the  fire  those  that 
escaped  drowning,  and  thus  annihilate  us, 
so  that  they  could  break  through  our  lines  at 
this  point.  No  doubt  it  was  a  clever  ruse,  but 
— it  did  not  work. 

169 


CHAPTER  TWELVE 

OUR  regiment  was  now  shifted  from  the 
position  where  the  Germans  had  tried 
to  drown  us  out  to  another  section 
near  a  place  which  we  afterwards  christened 
"The  Glory  Hole."  The  German  lines  and 
ours  were  very  near  to  each  other  here.  On 
the  night  of  our  arrival  we  could  hear  the 
Huns  talking,  and  after  we  had  settled  our- 
selves in  our  trenches,  we  could  hear  them 
now  and  again  whistling  "Highland  Laddie." 
It  was  evident  that  they  knew  who  we  were, 
as  that  is  the  tune  to  which  we  "march  past." 
I  was  now  initiated  into  the  use  of  the 
hand  grenades.  The  kind  we  got  were  later 
termed  the  "hair-brush."  Now  and  again, 
the  Germans  would  take  a  mad  turn  and  lob 
a  few  of  their  grenades  over  at  us,  and  in  turn, 
we  returned  the  compliment.  This  form  of 
fighting  was  then  in  its  infancy,  and  we  near- 
ly all  had  our  own  ways  of  doing  it.  I  used 
to  tie  two  or  three  of  the  bomb  handles  to- 

170 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

gether  with  a  rope;  get  hold  of  the  end  of  it, 
which  was  knotted;  and,  in  the  same  way  as 
an  American  athlete  throws  the  hammer,  I 
would  swing  the  bombs  over  my  head  and  let 
go  in  the  direction  of  Fritz.  In  this  way  I 
could  accomplish  a  few  yards  more  than  any- 
one who  threw  in  the  ordinary  way.  Sand- 
bags were  piled  about  three  feet  high  on  top 
of  the  parapet  with  loopholes  through  which 
we  fired  our  rifles.  When  I  wanted  to  throw 
the  grenades  in  the  fashion  I  have  just  de- 
scribed, I  would  go  to  the  more  level  ground 
at  the  back,  throw  them,  and  jump  back  into 
the  trench  where  I  always  had  ample  room,  as 
the  others,  with  varying  criticisms  of  my  enter- 
prise, gladly  cleared  the  way  before  I  started 
operations.  They  fully  expected  me  at  some 
time  to  make  a  mistake  and  land  the  gre- 
nades among  them  instead  of  in  the  bodies' 
trench. 

As  we  did  not  have  one  common  system 
of  throwing  these  grenades,  a  few  of  the  non- 
coms  and  men  were  selected  to  practise — a 
little  way  behind  the  lines — the  proper  meth- 
od. Our  Acting-Colonel,  J.  T.  C.  Murray, 
and  three  men  were  killed  when  a  lance-cor- 

171 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

poral,  in  swinging  a  grenade,  accidentally 
struck  the  ground  with  it,  causing  it  to  ex- 
plode. 

At  times  we  were  treated  to  some  lyddite 
shells  by  the  boches  (at  least  we  believed  them 
to  be  lyddite,  though  I  have  since  learned 
that  they  were  gas  shells).  I  was  never 
caught  in  the  fumes  myself,  but  I  saw  many 
men  who  had  been.  This  particular  gas 
simply  snuffed  the  life  out  of  the  men  without 
their  even  knowing  what  had  happened.  As 
they  lost  consciousness,  they  turned  a  yellow- 
brown  colour,  and  never  made  any  attempt 
to  stir — just  went  to  sleep  and  did  not  awaken 
— while  those  who  got  just  a  slight  touch  of 
it,  would  stagger  about,  as  if  deeply  intoxi- 
cated. 

Volunteers  were  asked,  one  day,  to  go  to  a 
V-shaped  sector  where  the  British  and  the 
German  lines  were  so  close  that  grenades 
could  be  easily  thrown  from  one  trench  to 
another — and  they  were!  Thinking  that  it 
would  be  an  easier  job  than  what  I  had  been 
doing,  I  gave  in  my  name.  I  think  nearly 
half  of  my  company  volunteered,  but  I  was 
among  the  first  eighteen  to  be  picked.  We 

172 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

were  armed  with  grenades  enough  to  do  an 
hour's  bombing.  Two  of  the  men  were  de- 
tailed  to  keep  renewing  the  sandbags  as  they 
were  torn  down  by  the  boches'  constant 
bombing.  The  German  grenades,  set  with 
a  time  fuse,  exploded  a  few  seconds  after 
leaving  the  thrower's  hand.  The  boches 
were  evidently  nervous  about  these  grenades, 
for  they  almost  invariably  cut  the  time  fuse 
too  long  or  threw  the  bomb  too  soon  after 
cutting  it,  so  that  our  men  frequently  caught 
the  unexploded  grenades  and  hurled  them 
back  at  the  Germans. 

The  first  two  to  go  "west"  when  our  vol- 
unteer party  got  into  action  were  the  sandbag 
men,  and  at  the  end  of  that  hour  there  were 
only  four  of  us  left  to  come  out  of  that  Hell, 
ten  being  killed  and  four  badly  wounded. 
After  our  turn,  volunteers  were  entirely  out 
of  the  question,  so  each  section  had  to  take 
an  hour  at  it.  The  trench  point  where  the 
bombing  occurred  was  called  the  "Glory 
Hole,"  and  it  was  well  named. 

Upon  getting  back  to  the  trench,  I  swore 
off  "bombing,"  and  decided  that  I  would 
stick  to  scouting,  although  almost  all  the  old 

173 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

scouts  had  been  killed.  Why  I  was  not,  is 
still  a  mystery  to  me.  After  a  few  days  at 
the  "Glory  Hole"  we  were  sent  to  the  rear 
to  billets. 

You  will  remember  that  there  were  thir- 
teen bullet  holes  in  the  Potsdam  bugle  which 
I  brought  back  from  the  charge  on  the  Ger- 
man trenches  near  La  Bassee.  How  many 
of  them  were  made  after  the  bugle  came  into 
my  possession  and  was  put  in  my  pack,  I  do 
not  know,  but,  at  any  rate,  I  believe  that 
thirteen  is  my  lucky  number.  This  is  the 
reason:  After  a  short  rest  in  billets,  we  were 
returned  to  a  portion  of  the  trench  near  a 
part  we  had  occupied  before.  The  regiment 
had  been  recruited  up  to  full  strength  again, 
and  I  can  tell  you  that  there  were  very  few 
of  the  original  Black  Watch  left.  In  fact, 
the  personnel  that  we  now  had  was  almost  a 
third  regiment.  In  order  to  reach  the  high 
broken  ground  to  our  right,  where  there  was 
a  great  deal  of  patrolling  and  scouting  to  be 
done,  it  was  necessary  to  cross  an  absolutely 
exposed  strip  of  ground  about  thirty  yards 
long.  So  many  men  had  been  killed  here 
that  we  called  it  "crossing  the  bar"  when  we 

174 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

had  to  traverse  this  neck  of  land.  You  must 
remember,  we  did  not  have  a  decent  air  fleet 
in  those  days  and  infantry  patrolling  and 
scouting  were  much  more  important  than  they 
are  to-day.  From  the  high  ground  to  the 
right,  much  information  of  the  movements 
of  German  troops  could  be  gained.  When- 
ever they  saw  even  a  single  man  "crossing 
the  bar,"  the  Huns  would  let  loose  a  salvo 
of  artillery  fire. 

I  usually  waited  until  it  was  dark  enough 
to  see  the  flashes  of  their  guns  before  crossing 
this  strip,  and  whenever  I  saw  the  first  flash 
I  would  sprint  a  few  paces  toward  it  and  then 
flop  down.  The  Germans  had  the  range  ex- 
actly. By  sprinting,  I  stood  a  good  chance 
of  getting  in  ahead  of  the  burst,  and  as 
shrapnel  carried  forward,  the  ruse  worked 
nicely.  In  order  to  show  a  party  of  the  new 
scouts  the  way  across  the  bar,  I  was  sent  out 
with  twelve  of  them,  thus  making  a  party  oj 
thirteen.  Before  we  started  I  drew  a  rough 
sketch  for  them  and  told  them,  as  exactly  as 
I  could,  just  what  to  do  when  we  were  fired 
upon.  That  we  would  be  fired  upon  was  a 
certainty. 

175 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

About  the  centre  of  this  open  strip  was  the 
dried  bed  of  a  stream  between  deeply  worn 
banks  and  this  afforded  the  only  protection 
on  the  way  across.  When  the  light  was  just 
right,  we  moved  out  to  the  edge  of  the  bar. 
I  gave  my  men  a  few  last  instructions.  It 
was  time  to  go.  I  took  one  last  look  across 
the  ground  which  was  literally  covered  with 
shell  splinters  and  deeply  furrowed. 

"Rush!"  I  yelled.  We  went  forward  in  a 
thin  line. 

I  saw  the  expected  flash  of  the  guns. 

"Straight  toward  them!"  I  shouted;  and 
we  all  ran  madly  in  the  direction  from  wrhich 
the  shells  were  coming. 

"Down!"  I  roared  with  every  bit  of  voice 
that  was  in  me,  at  the  same  time  flopping 
down  flat  on  my  face. 

There  was  a  terrific  crash!  It  seemed  all 
around  me.  I  could  not  tell  whether  it  was 
in  front  or  behind.  I  was  surprised  that  I 
was  not  hurt.  I  heard  groaning  behind  me. 
One  of  my  men  was  wounded.  There  was  not 
another  sound.  I  thought  the  others  must 
have  kept  on  running  despite  my  instructions, 
and  were  now  in  the  little  bed  of  the  stream 

176 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

waiting  for  me.  I  dared  not  move.  I  had  to 
lie  as  one  dead  or  the  guns  would  have  begun 
crashing  again  and  they  would  get  me  and  the 
wounded  man  behind  me.  Flare  rockets 
illumined  the  sky.  I  prayed  that  the  man 
who  was  hurt  would  lie  still.  If  he  hadn't 
done  so  it  would  have  been  all  over  with  both 
of  us. 

Half  an  hour  I  lay  there  in  the  mud  until 
the  rockets  were  no  longer  going  up  and  I 
thought  it  safe  to  move.  I  crept  a  few  feet 
over  the  ground.  My  hands  were  upon  the 
body  of  a  man,  but  he  was  not  groaning. 
Yet  the  groaning  continued  from  nearby.  I 
realized  that  one  of  my  men  had  been  killed. 
I  crept  farther  in  the  direction  of  the  groan- 
ing. I  bumped  into  a  huddled  mass.  It  was 
another  body. 

Still  I  groped  around.  I  had  found  three 
now.  At  last  I  reached  the  man  who  was 
hurt.  He  wasn't  moving,  only  groaning.  I 
thought  that  there  were  others  of  the  little 
party  who  needed  help.  In  the  darkness  I 
wriggled  here  and  there.  I  found  another 
body.  That  made  four.  Then  five — six — 
seven — and  so  on  till  I  found  eleven.  There 

177 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

were  only  two  of  us  left — the  wounded  man 
and  myself! 

I  stood  up  despairing  and  like  one  lost.  I 
almost  wished  that  I  had  been  one  of  the 
eleven  who  had  "crossed  the  bar"  once  for 
all.  I  got  the  wounded  man  onto  my  shoulder 
in  the  style  which  is  known  as  "the  fireman's 
carry,"  and  started  back  with  him,  walking 
erect.  I  had  forgotten  the  danger  of  shells. 
Luckily  it  was  inky  dark  and  I  was  not  seen. 

I  staggered  against  a  part  of  our  barbed 
wire  entanglements.  I  called  for  help.  Four 
men  crawled  over  the  parapet  to  meet  me. 
They  dragged  the  wounded  man  to  the  edge 
of  the  parapet.  He  was  still  groaning  faintly 
though  he  lay  as  one  dead.  As  we  lifted  him 
over  the  edge  of  the  trench,  the  groaning 
ceased.  He  was  dead !  /  alone  of  the  thirteen 
had  come  back  alive  I 

While  we  were  laying  out  the  corpse,  we 
heard  the  look-out  sentry  halting  some  one. 
I  jumped  onto  the  fire-step  and  plainly  saw 
a  figure  straightening  up  on  our  side  of /the 
barbed  wire,  with  his  hands  over  his  head, 
coming  right  forward.  He  dropped  into  our 
trench,  of  course  with  the  sentry  holding  his 

178 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

bayonet  pointed  at  him.  It  was  plain  to  be 
seen  that  the  young  German  was  giving  him- 
self up,  no  doubt  being  sick  of  the  fighting. 
He  made  a  motion  as  if^to  put  his  hand  in- 
side his  coat,  but  the  man  with  the  bayonet 
was  taking  no  chances  and  made  a  lunge  at 
him,  which  greatly  frightened  the  lad.  So  he 
made  us  understand  as  well  as  he  might,  still 
holding  his  hands  aloft,  that  he  had  something 
in  his  pocket  he  wanted  to  show  us.  ^  The 
sergeant  stepped  over  and  took  out  the  con- 
tents of  the  pocket.  He  did  not  have  any 
firearms  at  all.  Among  the  few  things  in  his 
pocket  was  a  worn  plain  envelope,  and  at 
this  he  pointed.  Inside  was  a  sheet  of  paper 
and  on  it  was  written  in  good  English: 

"English  soldiers,  please  be  kind  to  my 
boy." 

The  sergeant  asked  me  to  take  the  boy 
back  to  the  officers'  quarters  with  him,  as  I 
had  yet  to  report  my  sad  experience  in  "  Cross- 
ing the  Bar."  The  case  of  the  boy  prisoner 
proved  an  extraordinary  one.  An  officer  of 
the  engineers  attached  to  the  Black  Watch, 
who  could  speak-  German,  questioned  him. 
The  boy  had  not  the  least  idea  what  the  fight- 

179 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

ing  was  about.  He  told  the  officer  that  his 
mother  had  given  him  the  letter  as  she  felt 
sure  that  the  English  would  be  kind  to  him. 
She  had  told  him  that  he  should  give  himself 
up  at  the  first  opportunity.  He  was  her  only 
son. 

We  learned  from  him  of  preparations  for 
an  attack  by  the  Germans  at  dawn,  which 
corroborated  the  information  our  staff  al- 
ready had.  He  was  treated  very  kindly.  He 
seemed  very  much  taken  aback  at  the  kind 
treatment  accorded  him,  and  asked  if  it  was 
the  custom  of  the  English  to  treat  prisoners 
kindly  before  torturing  and  putting  them  to 
death.  Upon  hearing  this,  the  officer  he  was 
speaking  to  laughed  uproariously  for  fully  a 
minute,  and  the  others  wanted  to  know  the 
joke.  He  told  them  and  some  joined  in  the 
laugh.  The  officer  patted  the  boy  on  the 
back;  gave  him  his  letter,  telling  him  at  the 
same  time  to  treasure  it;  and  said  that  he 
would  no  doubt  meet  his  mother  again. 

The  boy  fell  upon  his  knees  and  tried  to 
kiss  the  officer's  hand,  sobbing  like  a  child. 
But  the  officer  nearly  turned  a  backward 
somersault,  getting  away  from  the  hand 

180 


kissing,  and  swore  as  if  he  would  eat  the 
lad  up. 

Sure  enough,  the  next  morning  the  attack 
came  off,  but  we  were  prepared  for  it.  Just 
at  "stand  to"  before  dawn,  our  artillery 
opened  fire  and  kept  pounding  at  them  until 
about  eight  o'clock;  the  enemy  replying  very 
vigorously.  They  attempted  to  get  over 
their  parapet,  but  gave  it  up  until  about 
noon.  They  tried  it  again.  Our  artillery 
opened  up  on  them,  and  some  forces  along  our 
line  charged  the  Germans. 

The  Black  Watch  had  supports  up  and  were 
to  make  a  charge  at  two  o'clock  that  day, 
but  the  sleet  came  on  with  an  awful  wind, 
and  this  prevented  it.  Instead,  the  regiment 
in  support  came  up  and  took  our  place  in 
the  trenches.  We  moved  along  some  distance 
to  the  right  flank.  The  sleet  and  rain  con- 
tinued, also  the  wind.  We  were  cold,  miser- 
able, and  grousing  in  good  style  because  we 
found  we  had  to  take  another  part  of  the 
trench,  instead  of  going,  as  we  thought,* to 
billets.  However,  we  got  an  extra  issue  of 
rum. 

This  place  was  pitted  with  big  shell  holes. 

181 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

It  looked  extremely  weird.  One  sigarree  (fire 
box  with  charcoal)  was  issued  to  a  company, 
and  we  would  take  our  turn  in  getting  warmed 
up  from  it.  This  lasted  only  a  few  days,  for 
very  soon  the  Germans  sighted  the  smoke, 
which  drew  their  shell  fire,  and  so  we  were 
glad  to  abandon  the  sigarrees  and  suffer  the 
cold. 


182 


CHAPTER  THIRTEEN 

WE  WERE  by  no  means  well  acquainted 
with  our  new  position,  and  one  night 
shortly  after  our  arrival,  two  of  the 
men  who  had  been  sent  out  to  reconnoitre, 
were  captured  by  the  enemy,  who  let  them 
go,  however,  after  stripping  them  to  the  skin. 

When  they  returned  they  had  big  bayonet 
wounds  in  their  hips,  and  were  suffering 
greatly  both  from  the  wounds  and  exposure. 
You  can  imagine  our  feelings  at  such  wanton 
cruelty. 

Previous  to  this  for  some  time  I  hadn't 
beenygiven  any  scouting  duty  and  had  been 
resting,  but  a  few  nights  after  this  occurrence, 
shortly  after  dusk,  I  was  sent  to  a  listening 
post,  which  was  situated  to  the  right  front 
of  our  open  flank.  The  ground  was  very 
broken  and  the  temperature  was  touching  on 
the  zero  mark.  Before  starting  out,  we  had 
just  got  our  night  issue  of  rum.  A  lance- 

183 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

corporal  accompanied  me,  and  after  lots  of 
manoeuvring  and  stumbling  through  shell 
holes  half  filled  with  slush,  we  arrived  at  the 
place  where  I  had  to  listen  for  movements 
of  German  artillery,  transports,  troops,  etc. 

We  crawled  to  the  edge  of  the  bank,  which 
overlooked  a  creek  or  canal.  We  knew  the 
German  lines  were  just  across  that  short 
space.  The  lance-corporal  said  he  would  see 
that  some  one  should  be  sent  to  relieve  me 
in  half  an  hour;  then  he  departed.  He  had 
not  gone  more  than  a  hundred  paces,  I  should 
judge,  when  the  German  artillery  let  loose. 
It  seemed  as  if  a  thousand  hells  had  erupted. 
I  was  dumbfounded.  I  wiggled  backward  on 
my  stomach,  until  I  slid  into  a  shell  hole  full 
of  water  and  mud.  I  did  not  mind  the  cold; 
it  helped  to  brace  me — to  realize  fully  the 
situation  in  which  I  was  placed.  The  shell 
fire  was  lighting  up  the  heavens;  splinters, 
slugs,  and  bullets  filled  the  air. 

I  began  saying  my  prayers.  (I  thought 
this  would  be  my  last  listening  duty  on  earth.) 
I  crouched  as  low  as  the  slush  in  the  hole 
would  allow  me.  Even  while  in  this  position, 
bullets  and  shrapnel  embedded  themselves 

184 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

so  near  me  that,  had  I  lifted  my  head,  I 
should  have  been  plugged  instantly. 

The  hellish  bombardment  seemed  unceasing. 
I  was  cramped  and  numb.  How  long  the 
firing  lasted  I  do  not  know.  At  last,  however, 
I  became  conscious  that  the  clouds  were 
clearing  away  and  I  discerned  a  pale  moon. 
I  tried  to  drag  myself  out  of  the  freezing 
slush,  but  couldn't.  All  the  power  in  my 
body  seemed  gone.  The  shelling  had  ceased 
and  there  was  a  dead  silence.  I  knew  I  was 
freezing  to  death.  I  once  even  tried  to 
place  the  muzzle  of  my  rifle  under  my  chin 
and  blow  my  head  off,  but  I  was  unable  to 
feel  for  the  rifle.  My  hands  had  lost  sense 
of  touch.  My  lower  limbs  were  insensible. 
I  gave  up  all  hopes  of  help  or  of  ever  leaving 
the  shell  hole — alive. 

What  seemed  a  long  time  after  I  had  deemed 
myself  lost  I  heard  some  one  in  the  vicinity. 
I  wasn't  able  to  lift  my  head.  I  tried  to 
speak.  I  was  as  one  dead,  with  the  exception 
of  my  brain. 

The  next  thing  I  knew  something  was  being 
poured  down  my  throat.  Some  one  was  at- 
tending to  me  but  I  was  unconcerned.  I 

185 


wanted  only  to  die.  If  I  could  but  have 
spoken,  I  would  have  begged  the  men  who 
were  attending  me  to  put  me  out  of  my 
agony.  After  a  while,  I  recognized  them  as 
our  men.  They  were  rubbing  and  slapping 
my  body  for  all  they  were  worth.  Now  and 
again  one  of  them  put  his  water  bottle  to  my 
mouth.  At  first  I  could  not  make  out  what 
he  was  trying  to  pour  down  my  throat,  but 
at  last  I  recognized  it  as  rum.  I  forced  myself 
to  drink  it.  Then  they  rubbed  my  abdomen 
and  legs  with  some  of  it  as  briskly  as  they 
could.  One  of  them  exchanged  his  kilt  for 
mine;  then  they  both  wrapped  their  great- 
coats around  me,  and,  between  them,  man- 
aged to  carry  me  back  to  the  trenches — to 
safety. 

The  jolting  on  the  way  back  started  my 
blood  circulating.  It  is  beyond  me  to  explain 
exactly  the  feeling.  My  stomach  began 
aching  as  if  it  contained  boiling  lead;  then  a 
feeling  as  if  a  million  electrically  charged 
wires  had  commenced  to  burn  in  the  lower 
part  of  my  abdomen  and  down  to  my  lower 
limbs.  I  had  the  desire  to  shout  out  loud; 
whether  or  not  I  did,  to  this  day  I  cannot  tell. 

186 


I  must  have  gone  completely  insane  with  the 
pain  for  a  while,  for  later  I  found  myself 
struggling  with  a  group  of  men,  and  they  were 
urging  me  to  keep  quiet.  They  poured  lots 
of  rum  into  me,  and  I  began  to  feel  much 
better;  in  fact,  more  like  myself,  except  that 
my  legs  and  feet  were  like  lumps  of  lead. 

During  this  time — since  my  rescue  from  the 
shell  hole — the  Germans  had  made  a  charge 
and  were  repulsed.  The  Black  Watch  had 
taken  a  line  of  their  trench  and  were  holding 
it.  Two  men  had  been  sent  out  to  find  what 
had  happened  to  the  lance-corporal  and  my- 
self, as  the  company  commander  had  been 
expecting  our  report.  They  found  the  lance- 
corporal,  riddled  with  bullets,  not  far  from 
where  he  had  left  me.  When  they  came 
across  me  I  had  done  an  eight  hours'  stretch 
of  duty. 

I  stayed  in  the  reserve  trench  until  we 
went  to  billets,  a  couple  of  days  after  this. 
We  were  looking  forward  to  spending  Christ- 
mas in  billets,  but  were  disappointed. 

We  had  hardly  been  "cushy"  three  days, 
when  we  were  sent  to  hold  a  position  on  the 
left  flank  of  an  English  battalion  of  what  we 

187 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

believed  to  be  the  Sussex  Regiment.  It  was 
just  two  days  before  Christmas  when  we 
took  up  this  position. 

It  was  much  quieter  here.  Snow  had  fallen 
during  the  night,  giving  the  ground  a  sort 
of  peaceful  appearance,  except  for  a  few  dark 
patches  where  some  "Jack  Johnsons"  or 
"Black  Marias"  had  landed  toward  dawn. 
(It  was  Christmas  Day.)  Just  after  "stand 
down,"  our  mail  was  issued.  It  consisted 
mostly  of  parcels.  Our  part  of  the  trench 
was  very  fortunate.  Every  man  had  at  least 
two  letters  and  as  many  parcels.  I  received 
three  in  the  same  handwriting  and  a  two- 
pound  box  of  chocolate  almonds.  Parcels  con- 
taining socks,  mittens,  scarfs,  etc.,  were 
pounced  upon  by  all  hands,  as  these  articles 
were  very  much  needed  at  this  time.  Next 
in  importance  came  the  cigarettes,  of  which  we 
received  a  goodly  supply. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  we  all  tasted  one  an- 
other's luxuries — shortbread,  chocolates,  and 
currant  cakes  (which  had  to  be  eaten  mostly 
with  a  spoon  because  of  the  rough  handling 
they  had  had) — and  we  exchanged  confidences 
about  our  letters  whether  they  were  from 

188 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Miss  Campbell,  Mrs.  Low,  or  Uncle  Sandy. 

Every  Tommy,  every  Jock,  learns  to  know 
and  to  love  his  trench  mate  as  a  brother. 
The  men  in  the  "ditches"  feel  as  if  they  all 
belonged  to  the  one  mother,  sharing  each 
other's  confidences,  both  pleasant  and  sad. 
There  is  no  selfishness — not  even  a  thought  of 
it — "over  there." 

We  were  all  sitting  round  the  fire-steps  of 
our  trenches,  thinking,  ever  thinking,  and 
wondering  how  many  of  us  would  live  to  see 
the  same  sun  rise  on  another  Christmas  Day. 
The  sun  was  red.  It  appeared  to  be  dripping- 
red — with  blood,  when  a  slight  commotion 
started  up  along  to  the  right.  I  grasped  my 
rifle  and  at  the  same  time  looked  round  the 
little  traverse.  I  saw  a  few  chaps  with  their 
heads  over  the  parapet — which  seemed  un- 
wise and  extremely  dangerous.  I  thought  we 
had  been  surprised  by  the  Huns,  and  took  a 
glance  in  the  direction  of  their  trenches,  which 
looked  as  quiet  as  our  own.  But  I  could  see 
thin  lines  of  smoke  rising  up  at  irregular 
intervals  from  the  fires  they  had  built.  Al- 
most at  the  same  instant  my  eye  caught  sight 
of  a  figure  some  six  hundred  yards  to  our 

189 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

right  proceeding  in  the  direction  of  the 
bodies'  trenches;  and,  to  crown  all,  he  was  a 
British  Tommy ! 

I  thought  the  man  must  have  gone  out  of 
his  mind,  and  when  I  looked  at  where  he  came 
from,  it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  regiment  was 
viewing  the  daring  proceedings  of  this  sol- 
itary individual  "between  the  lines."  At 
that  part  the  trenches  were  much  nearer  than 
at  ours.  They  seemed  there  about  two  hun- 
dred yards  apart,  while  ours  were  about  five 
hundred  yards  distant  from  Fritz. 

I  saw  the  solitary  Tommy  walk  right  on 
to  within  a  few  yards  of  the  German  entangle- 
ments and  pause  a  minute;  then  a  boche's 
head  could  be  seen.  At  this,  Tommy  picked 
his  way  over  the  entanglements  very  cau- 
tiously. 

My  heart  was  in  my  mouth !  I  could  scarce- 
ly keep  from  shouting  when  he  reached  the 
edge  of  the  enemy  parapet  and — disappeared ! 

By  this  time  our  regiment  was  practically 
all  on  the  fire-step,  breathlessly  watching  and 
ready  for  what  might  happen  after  the  dis- 
appearance of  this  "madcap." 

Five  minutes  more  elapsed.  Then  a  head 
190 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

bobbed  up  at  the  same  spot  we  had  been 
watching,  and  out  of  the  trench  came — the 
selfsame  Tommy.  He  was  carrying  some- 
thing in  his  hand.  My  eyes  kept  steady  on 
him  until  he  reached  his  own  parapet,  where 
he  stood  a  moment  flourishing  this  article; 
then,  clasping  it  to  him  as  if  prizing  it,  he  got 
down  into  the  trench.  While  he  had  stood 
there  for  a  moment,  his  fellow  trench-mates 
threw  out  their  arms  to  take  his  precious 
bundle  from  him,  but  as  I  say,  he  seemed  to 
hold  tightly  on  to  it.  When  I  looked  back 
at  the  place  he  had  just  left,  the  Germans 
were  waving  their  helmets,  with  heads  above 
the  parapet.  It  was  Christmas  all  right!  and 
we  certainly  got  a  Santa  Claus  surprise  in 
watching  these  unusual  proceedings. 

They  were  getting  bolder  on  both  sides  at 
this  part  of  the  line,  and  a  few  men  began 
walking  on  their  parapets,  finally  coming 
closer  and  then  meeting  men  from  the  enemy 
trench.  Then  followed  a  football  match  with 
regimental  shirts  tied  up.  To  see  those 
Tommies  charging  with  their  shoulders  and 
explaining  the  game  to  the  Germans,  who  were 
not  so  well  acquainted  with  it,  was  a  Christ- 

191 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

mas  festival  in  itself  that  will  never  be  for- 
gotten by  those  who  witnessed  it. 

[We  found  out  afterward  that "  Spud  "  Smith 
— who  had  just  received  a  lovely  "currant 
bun"  from  home  and  was  overjoyed  with  it- 
was  jumping  round  and  making  so  much 
noise  about  it,  that  the  fellows  dared  him  to 
take  it  over  to  the  Germans  and  wish  them 
"A  Merry  Christmas."  He  at  once  threw  off 
his  equipment  and  made  toward  them,  where 
he  received  his  Christmas  present  in  the  form 
of  a  bottle  of  "schnapps."  "Spud"  Smith 
was  the  madcap  of  his  regiment.] 

A  few  minutes  after  midnight,  we  were 
brought  back  to  war  again  by  the  Germans 
shelling  us  all  along  the  line. 

Everything  was  tolerably  quiet,  with  the 
exception  of  an  occasional  shelling  from  either 
side,  until  New  Year's  Eve,  when  an  infernal 
row  got  up  and  on  New  Year's  Day  we  had 
about  one  hundred  and  thirty  casualties. 
The  shelling  grew  worse,  and  we  discovered 
that  the  Saxons  had  been  relieved  by  the 
Prussians.  Twice  they  charged  us  in  mass 
formation,  and  we  were  forced  to  retire  to 
our  second-line  trenches.  It  was  their  idea 

192 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

and  intention  to  break  through  our  lines  to 
get  to  Calais  in  time  for  the  Kaiser's  birth- 
day. This  was  the  beginning  of  their  big 
drive.  Although  we  got  a  severe  cutting  up, 
we  managed  to  hold  all  the  ground  we  had, 
despite  their  mass  formation,  which  is  a 
stern  and  dreadful  thing  to  face. 

One  morning,  about  the  middle  of  January, 
the  coal  boxes,  Jack  Johnsons  and  Black 
Marias  were  just  simply  shaking  the  earth. 
The  German  airplanes  had  been  very  active 
these  last  few  days,  and  it  seemed  they  were 
giving  their  heavy  artillery  the  proper  range 
on  our  lines.  The  Jack  Johnsons  were  land- 
ing to  the  right  of  our  regiment  and  were 
gradually  working  their  way  up  toward  us. 
We  could  see  them  tearing  up  parts  of  the 
trenches — smashing  up  men,  whose  limbs 
were  sent  flying  up  through  the  air.  The 
sight  was  really  too  frightful  to  recall. 

Orders  were  given  that  the  Black  Watch 
should  stand  to  its  post  and  that  no  man 
was  to  retire.  But  as  the  heavy  shells  drew 
nearer,  smashing  everything  up,  they  proved 
too  much  for  the  recruits  wrho  had  joined  us 
only  within  the  last  few  days,  and  they  made 

193 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

for  the  reserve  trenches.  By  this  time  the 
Germans  were  beginning  to  make  their  ad- 
vance in  waves.  Word  was  passed  along  that 
our  regiment  should  retire  to  its  reserve 
trenches,  but  it  came  too  late  for  a  few  of 
us, — as  we  were  already  pumping  it  into  the 
Germans.  Those  who  had  retired  were  firing 
over  our  heads  at  the  advancing  Huns,  thus 
making  it  dangerous  for  us  to  withdraw. 

Just  as  I  had  made  up  my  mind  that  we 
must  get  back  somehow,  Sergeant  Johnstone 
crept  to  my  side  and  said;  "Cassells,  let's 
stick  it  out.  This  might  last  only  a  few 
minutes  more  and  then  it'll  be  all  right  again." 

"All  right,  Johnstone,"  I  said;  and  we 
shook  hands. 

Our  own  shells  were  bursting  so  close  to 
our  front  that  they  were  showering  us  with 
earth  and  stones. 

I  saw  the  nearest  Germans  about  a  couple 
of  hundred  yards  away. 

Then  suddenly  a  dark  curtain  dropped  be- 
fore my  eyes." 


194 


CHAPTER  FOURTEEN 

I  SEEMED  to  awake  from  a  long  sleep, 
only  to  discover  that  instead  of  being  in 
a  trench  or  a  billet  I  was  in  a  hospital;  one 
of  the  kind  made  of  canvas.    There  were  two 
great  marquee  tents,  with  nurses  flitting  about 
quietly — like  angels  they  seemed  to  me,  for 
the  moment. 

The  pain  that  racked  my  body  was  awful. 
I  lay  there  trying  to  determine  in  what  part 
of  me  the  pain  was  located  but  it  seemed  to 
be  all  over  me.  I  noticed  that  either  a  nurse 
or  an  orderly  was  constantly  in  attendance 
at  my  cot. 

As  my  comprehension  of  things  about  me 
became  clearer,  I  realized  that  my  neighbour 
was  a  German.  His  moaning,  coupled  with 
his  muttering  of  "Ach,  mein  Gott  in  Himmel!" 
got  on  my  nerves,  but  I  decided  to  say  nothing, 
as  I  had  not  yet  learned  whether  it  was  an 
enemy  hospital  or  one  of  our  own.  I  decided 
that  if  it  was  the  former,  the  quietest  way 

195 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

to  die  was  the  best,  if  die  I  must.  During 
one  of  the  moaning  spells  of  my  neighbour, 
I  seemed  to  lose  consciousness.  When  I 
"came  back,"  a  soft  voice  whispered  in  my 
ear:  "It's  all  right;  keep  still;  we  are  only 
taking  a  plate  of  your  leg." 

An  English  voice! — and  with  such  kindness 
in  it!  Our  own  hospital!  Not  a  prisoner! 
I  just  wanted  to  cry  out,  from  sheer  happi- 
ness. 

When  next  I  found  myself  in  my  cot,  that 
awful  pain  was  unnerving  me,  but  the  doctor, 
Captain  Allen,  assured  me  that  I  would  be 
all  right  after  a  few  weeks'  rest  in  Blighty. 
I  immediately  asked  when  I  was  to  go.  His 
reply  was:  "When  your  temperature  goes 
down.  It  has  been  104  for  about  a  week." 

I  said  I  would  like  to  write  home,  and  my 
soft- voiced  nurse  thereupon  brought  me  paper 
and  envelope.  I  moved  to  extend  my  right 
hand  for  the  paper,  and  with  dismay  found 
it  hi  splints  and  bandages,  with  a  strong 
resemblance  to  a  huge  boxing  glove.  Quickly 
I  glanced  at  the  left  hand,  to  find  with  relief 
that  it,  at  least,  was  whole. 

I  had  of  course  never  learned  to  use  my  left 
196 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

hand  for  writing.  Observing  my  need  of 
assistance,  the  nurse  sat  on  the  edge  of  my 
bed  and  took  pen  and  paper  to  write  for  me. 
I  had  not  even  to  ask  her  to  do  this  service. 
The  tears  came  into  my  eyes  at  her  willing, 
quiet  helpfulness. 

After  she  had  finished  writing  my  letter, 
I  asked  her  about  my  condition.  She  seemed 
reluctant  to  tell  me,  but  as  I  urged  her  to  do 
so  she  finally  said: 

"Your  leg  will  probably  have  to  be  ampu- 
tated, as  it  has  been  completely  turned  round 
and  the  knee  badly  shattered.  Some  splinters 
of  shell  still  remain  in  it." 

She  left  me — but  not  for  long.  She  had  gone 
for  the  plate  with  the  impression  of  my  knee. 
This  she  held  up  to  what  light  could  get 
through  the  roof  of  the  yellow  canvas,  and  the 
picture  I  saw  quite  startled  me.  I  counted 
four  little  black  specks  around  the  joint, 
and  to  one  piece  in  particular  she  called  my 
attention.  It  was  about  the  size  of  a  one- 
carat  diamond  pointed  at  both  ends  and  was 
embedded  in  the  knee  cap.  This  tiny  object 
was  giving  me  nearly  all  of  my  pain. 

The  medical  officer  on  his  rounds  ap- 
197 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

preached  us  and  greeted  me  with  "You  cer- 
tainly had  a  miraculous  escape." 

Later,  one  of  my  mates  in  the  hospital, 
who  was  with  my  regiment,  told  me  how 
I  got  mine.  He  had  witnessed  it.  A  Jack 
Johnson  striking  about  fifteen  yards  in  front 
of  the  trench  I  was  in,  exploded,  caving  the 
trench  in  for  a  length  of  about  thirty  yards. 
I,  with  Sergeant  Johnstone,  who  had  come  up 
the  previous  day  with  reinforcements,  was 
buried  completely.  Then  the  Germans 
charged  over  the  trench  at  our  fellows,  who 
retired  to  their  reserve  trenches.  However, 
the  enemy  was  repulsed  and  had  to  retire 
to  their  own  lines  again.  This  fight  started 
about  2  P.  M.,  and  it  was  not  until  about  nine 
o'clock  that  night  that  our  company  came 
up  and  began  to  re-open  the  trench.  It  seems 
that  one  fellow  was  about  to  use  his  pick 
when  another  close  by  with  a  shovel  noticed 
something  in  the  form  of  a  head.  He  stayed 
the  hand  with  the  pick  just  in  time.  It  was 
a  head — and  mine  at  that.  They  completely 
unearthed  me,  and,  as  I  looked  to  be  dead, 
placed  me  to  one  side  with  a  waterproof  sheet 
over  me,  to  be  buried  later.  Luckily  enough, 

198 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

a  medical  officer  examined  me  and  found  there 
was  still  a  little  life  left.  He  used  artificial 
respiration,  put  my  legs  in  splints  made  up 
of  empty  ration  boxes,  bandaged  my  damaged 
right  hand,  and  sent  me  to  the  Rouen  Hospi- 
tal, unconscious,  but  with  a  spark  of  life 
still  in  me. 

Even  after  two  weeks'  stay  in  the  hospital 
my  condition  was  still  very  critical,  but  I  had 
the  courage  and  optimism  peculiar  to  the 
Scot  and  my  hopes  for  recovery  endured 
stubbornly.  The  moans  of  my  German 
neighbour,  mixed  with  cries  for  "Das  Ei" 
didn't  allay  my  fever  at  all.  No  one  knew 
what  he  wanted.  Latterly  one  of  our  wounded 
fellows  called  the  nurse  over  and  suggested 
very  earnestly  that  perhaps  he  had  a  glass  eye 
and  it  needed  some  attention.  The  nurse 
at  once  examined  his  eyes,  but  found  them 
all  right. 

However,  the  next  medical  officer  on  duty 
understood  German  and  acquainted  the  nurse 
with  the  fact  that  the  patient  had  been 
calling  for  an  egg.  He  marked  on  his  chart 
that  he  should  be  given  two  fresh  eggs  every 
morning. 

199 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

This  German  was  accorded  first  attention, 
while  our  own  boys  had  to  be  content  with 
being  next  in  line.  We  could  not  kick,  how- 
ever, as  the  doctors  and  nurses  stretched  their 
ability  to  do  for  others  to  the  utmost. 
After  our  prisoner  had  had  his  hunger  ap- 
peased with  the  "Ei,"  he  seemed  content  to 
die,  for  that  is  just  what  he  did.  From  what 
I  could  learn,  his  injury  had  been  a  bad 
one,  a  large  piece  of  shell  having  pierced 
his  chest. 

I  felt  sure,  when  I  saw  him  carried  out,  that 
my  turn  was  next.  Then  I  discovered  that 
the  number  of  my  cot  was  13,  so — recalling 
the  many  escapes  from  death  I  had  had  and 
how  this  number  had  been  concerned  in  them, 
my  hopes  for  recovery  went  soaring  high. 

Now  I  was  recovering  enough  to  take  an 
interest  in  other  cases  in  the  ward,  and 
one  in  particular,  a  Royal  Irish  Fusilier,  in 
the  cot  opposite  me.  He  had  forty-eight 
bullet  wounds  in  his  body.  He  had  already 
been  in  this  ward  six  weeks,  so  I  knew  then 
I  wasn't  the  worst  case  there.  My  tem- 
perature had  now  dropped  to  100,  and  I 
was  informed  that  an  orderly  would  bring 

200 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

my  clothes  and  get  me  ready  for  a  journey. 
This  meant  Blighty! 

A  couple  of  the  Royal  Army  Medical  Corps 
men  came  into  the  tent  and  very  gently  laid 
me  in  a  stretcher,  then  carried  me  out  along 
narrow  pathways  bordered  by  neatly  white- 
washed stones  and  rows  of  double-linked 
marquee  tents  with  similar  neat  arrangements 
of  stones  at  the  entrances.  There  seemed 
to  be  a  city  of  tents  on  the  Rouen  Champ  de 
Course  (race  course),  and  outside  of  it  too, 
as  far  as  my  eyes  could  see. 

At  the  end  farthest  from  the  cook-house 
huts,  I  noticed  a  large  boiler  arrangement 
with  a  funnel  sticking  up  at  one  end  and  on 
the  door  some  large  print,  but  I  could  not 
read  the  lettering.  I  asked  one  of  the  men 
what  the  object  was.  I  was  informed  that 
it  was  used  for  disinfecting  Tommy's  clothes 
and  exterminating  the  cooties  that  they 
sheltered.  Tommy  gets  a  change  to  hospital 
clothing  as  soon  as  he  enters  the  base  hospital. 
On  taking  a  second  look  at  the  sign,  I  made 
out  "Germ-Hun  Exterminator."  So  when 
Tommy  gets  his  clothes  out  of  "dock" 
(hospital),  and  grumbles  at  the  R.  A.  M.  C. 

201 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

orderlies  when  he  finds  his  collection  of  souve- 
nirs depleted,  they  promptly  put  the  blame 
on  the  "Germ-Hun." 

As  soon  as  I  was  placed  in  an  ambulance, 
a  tag  was  fastened  to  my  lapel  and  I  was 
ready  for  the  road  along  with  other  lucky 
chaps.  It  seemed  as  if  we  were  hardly 
settled  when  we  arrived  at  the  railway  sta- 
tion. An  ambulance  train  was  waiting  here 
for  us,  and  before  many  minutes  had  elapsed 
we  found  ourselves  en  route  for  Le  Havre. 
We  arrived  here  the  same  night  and  were 
placed  aboard  the  S..S.  Asturias. 

When  we  were  about  mid-channel,  a  torpedo 
from  a  German  submarine  just  cleared  the 
bow  of  our  ship  by  a  few  feet.  Even  a  hospi- 
tal ship  is  a  target  for  the  missiles  of  the 
enemy. 

We  arrived  next  morning  at  Southampton 
without  further  occurrences  of  moment. 

Each  patient  was  asked  where  he  wished 
to  be  sent.  It  was  natural  that  each  should 
give  his  home  district.  We  were  placed  in 
rows  in  the  large  shed  on  the  wharf,  and  our 
destination  marked  on  our  tickets.  We  were 
now  ready  for  our  next  part  of  the  journey. 

202 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Suddenly  my  attention  was  attracted  by 
vigorous  exclamations.  From  the  patient  in 
the  stretcher  next  to  me  I  heard  vociferous 
"bly'me-ing"  in  a  very  strong  cockney  accent. 
I  asked  the  disturber  what  he  was  making  all 
the  row  about. 

"Bli'  me,"  he  said,  "they've  gawn  an'  gyve 
me  a  ticket  to  th'  bloomink  end  o'  Scotland!" 

"Is  it  a  mistake?"  I  asked. 

"Mistyke!"  said  he.  "Is  it  a  mistyke? 
Hit's  a  mistyke  that  tykes  in  th' whole  bloomink 
ge-hography  of  Britain." 

He  communed  with  himself  a  moment  in 
eloquent  but  inelegant  language.  Then  he 
asked: 

"Where've  they  ticketed  you  to,  myte?" 

I  hadn't  thought  of  looking  at  my  ticket, 
but  now  I  noted  that  I  was  destined  for 
"Chelsea,  London,  S.  W."  So  he  outlined  a 
scheme  to  which  I  readily  agreed.  We 
exchanged  tickets. 

I  adopted  his  name  "Bill  Mortimer"  of  the 
Rifle  Brigade  and  soon  I  was  making  for 
"th'  bloomink  end  o'  Scotland,"  while  he  was 
en  route  for  Chelsea  under  his  assumed 
name. 

205 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

When  I  arrived  in  an  Aberdeen  Hospital, 
they  were  a  good  few  days  trying  to  account 
for  me,  as  my  papers  had  naturally  gone  to 
Chelsea.  Ultimately  they  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  there  must  have  been  an  error  at 
Southampton;  and  sure  enough,  my  record 
was^finally  located  at  the  London  hospital. 

It  was  one  of  the  best  errors  that  could  have 
happened,  for  very  soon  I  found  myself  in 
the  "Craigleith  Military  Hospital"  within 
commuting  distance  of  my  relatives  and 
friends.  I  never  heard  any  more  of  my  friend 
"Bill  Mortimer,"  but  I  have  no  doubt  the 
"error"  proved  a  good  one  to  him  also. 

Two  medical  officers  looked  me  over  very 
carefully  the  first  day.  The  next  day  they 
came  back  accompanied  by  the  chief  medi- 
cal officer,  Colonel  Cottrill.  After  the  latter 
examined  me  carefully  he  said  that  "an 
immediate  amputation  would  be  the  wisest 
plan."  He  asked  me  whether  other  examining 
physicians  had  told  me  the  same  thing. 

I  said:  "Yes;  but  I  think  it  will  be  all 
right.  See,  I  can  wiggle  my  toes."  And  I 
pointed  out  that  this  was  a  sure  sign  of  hope 
for  a  recovery  without  amputation. 

204 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Then  commenced  a  daily  routine  of  ban- 
daging which  stretched  into  months;  every 
conceivable  treatment  for  my  betterment  was 
given  me;  a  plaster-of-Paris  cast  was  put  on 
my  knee,  and  after  it  was  on  a  week  or  two, 
the  effect  was  simply  wonderful. 

By  this  time,  my  hand  could  be  used  a 
little,  but  I  found  myself  minus  a  finger 
and  with  two  others  broken.  They,  however, 
healed  to  normal. 

Every  week,  during  our  long  stay  in  the 
hospital,  entertainments  were  given  for  us  by 
professional  actors  and  actresses.  Visitors 
were  permitted  to  call  Wednesdays  and 
Sundays  from  1  to  4  P.M.;  on  other  days 
from  1  to  3  P.M.  I  cannot  describe  the 
generosity  and  kindness  of  the  people  of 
Edinburgh. 

Every  day  came  armfuls  of  flowers — the 
most  soothing  offering  a  convalescent  Tommy 
can  receive,  outside  of  the  occasional  kiss 
some  dear  wee  lass  would  imprint  on  his 
cheek.  Both  are  wonderful  in  their  ability 
to  cheer  a  lonesome  Tommy,  who,  perhaps, 
finds  himself  far  from  his  home  folk! 
Every  day  the  ladies  and  young  girls  of  the 

205 


town  came  to  sit  by  our  cots  and  read  to 
us  or  write  our  letters.  It  was  an  enormous 
hospital,  having  often  as  many  as  1100 
patients  and  every  man  in  it,  even  those 
who  were  strangers  in  Scotland,  had  daily 
visitors  in  plenty.  English  and  Welsh  sol- 
diers, too  far  from  home  to  receive  the  atten- 
tion of  their  own  people,  were  given  even 
more  favours  than  the  Scots.  Every  day,  a 
flock  of  big  motor  cars  drew  up  and  carried 
away  those  who  were  far  enough  toward  re- 
covery for  a  ride.  We  had  many  delightful 
hours  rolling  swiftly  through  the  picturesque 
city  of  Edinburgh,  along  the  banks  of  the 
Forth  and  up  through  the  beautiful  Pentland 
Hills. 

Our  lockers  were  well  filled,  and  we  never 
wanted  for  such  dainties  as  chocolates  and 
fancy  biscuits,  and  we  had  magazines,  and— 
above  all — cigarettes. 

A  party  of  our  lady  visitors  brought  us  wool 
and  volunteered  to  teach  us  the  art  of  knitting 
to  while  away  our  idle  time.  Most  of  the  boys 
took  kindly  enough  to  it,  but  I  wanted  to 
learn  embroidery.  It  caused  no  end  of  merri- 
ment that  a  man  should  want  to  sew.  How- 

206 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

ever,  I  persuaded  them  to  try  me,  and  one 
of  them  offered  to  do  so. 

In  India  I  had  done  quite  a  little  at  sketch- 
ing, and  my  teacher  found  me  an  apt  pupil 
in  this  allied  art.  Very  soon  I  had  mastered 
the  art  of  making  long  and  short  stitches, 
French  knots,  border  and  buttonhole  stitches, 
etc.  I  was  so  highly  commended  that  I 
received  many  requests  from  these  ladies 
for  cushion  covers,  doilies,  etc.  They  brought 
the  materials  and  I  plied  the  needle.  It  was 
such  enticing  work  that  very  soon  two  other 
fellows  "joined  in.'* 

We  had  many  other  ways  of  passing  the 
time.  Visitors  would  ask  us  to  write  or 
sketch  something  in  their  autograph  books, 
which  we  did  with  much  pleasure,  and  I  can 
tell  you  that  some  very,  very  funny  local 
sketches  and  poetry — composed  on  the  spur 
of  the  moment,  with  fellow  mates,  nurses, 
and  doctors  as  the  subjects — were  carried 
away  from  that  hospital.  They  were  highly 
prized  by  the  recipients.  We  had  also  a 
monthly  Gazette  recording  the  events  of  the 
daily  life  of  the  hospital  in  a  breezy  and 
interesting  way. 

207! 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

I  saw  many  a  bad  case  brought  in,  get  well, 
and  sent  home,  but  still  I  remained,  and  so 
Corporal  Charles  Palmer,  who  had  been  there 
the  longest,  promoted  himself  to  be  "Com- 
mander-in-Chief "  and  took  me  as  second  in 
command,  I  being  next  to  him  in  length  of 
time  there.  One  of  his  legs  had  been  blown 
off  six  inches  above  the  knee  and  the  pain  he 
suffered  at  times  was  excruciating.  Another 
lad,  a  German,  sixteen  years  of  age,  had  had 
both  legs  blown  off  below  the  knees  by  one  of 
the  Germans'  own  shells  just  as  he  was  about 
to  give  himself  up  to  the  British.  He  spoke 
very  good  English  and  was  surprisingly  cheery. 
The  fair  sex  found  him  very  attractive  and  he 
always  got  an  ample  share  of  the  dainties 
they  brought. 

I  was  still  in  the  hospital  when  the  awful 
"Gretna  Green"  disaster  happened.  Perhaps 
you  remember  it.  A  regiment  of  the  Royal 
Scots  was  on  its  way  to  the  front.  Their 
train  collided  with  another  at  Gretna  Green 
near  the  Carlisle  Junction,  resulting  in  the 
loss  of  more  than  one  hundred  lives.  Some 
of  those  that  required  medical  attention  were 
sent  to  Craigleith,  and  among  the  few  that 

208 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

found  themselves  in  our  ward  was  a  very 
broad-spoken  Scot.  He  was  on  seven  days' 
leave,  but  being  "full  of  happiness,"  some- 
how or  another  got  mixed  in  at  Edinburgh 
station  with  the  lads  of  the  wreck.  He  spied 
an  empty  cot  which  he  immediately  made 
for  and  fell  asleep  upon  it.  Soon  afterward, 
Colonel  Sir  Joseph  Farrer,  Commandant  of 
the  hospital,  came  along  to  see  the  Gretna 
lads.  When  he  came  to  this  cot  he  slowly 
uncovered  the  face  of  the  presumed  patient 
and  asked:  "How  are  you?"  The  Scot,  so 
rudely  aroused,  sat  up,  exclaiming: ';  "Fine, 
mon;  hoo's  yerseP?"  The  colonel  was  non- 
plussed for  the  moment,  but  hastily  recovered 
himself  however,  and  shook  the  extended 
hand  of  the  erstwhile  patient,  much  to  the 
amusement  of  the  rest  of  us. 

Among  the  "padres"  to  visit  the  hospital 
was  a  Major  Chaplain  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. He  seemed  particularly  interested  in 
our  ward  (G  ward)  and  made  as  many  as 
three  visits  a  week. 

Thursdays,  after  tea,  was  prayer  meeting 
for  us,  as  well  as  for  a  few  of  the  other  wards. 
Of  course,  it  was  impossible  for  all  the  wards 

209 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

to  have  the  meeting  on  the  same  evening, 
owing  to  the  large  number  of  them  and  the 
scarcity  of  clergymen,  so  many  of  whom 
were  with  the  boys  in  France.  On  one  Thurs- 
day evening  in  particular,  the  Church  of 
England  chaplain  I  have  just  mentioned  was 
about  to  commence  the  service  when  the 
absence  of  the  organ  (which  was  a  little  port- 
able one,  such  as  is  used  by  the  Salvation 
Army)  was  discovered. 

A  couple  of  men  who  could  walk  volunteered 
to  go  in  search  of  the  organ,  but  they  couldn't 
find  it.  Then  Sister  Brian,  a  most  accommo- 
dating nurse,  whose  Cockney  accent  was  an 
unmistakable  mark  of  her  early  upbringing, 
went  out  to  locate  the  missing  organ.  After 
a  few  minutes  she  returned  and  startled  the 
ward  by  announcing,  from  the  doorway: 
"You  men  'ad  hall  better  go  to  'Hell'  (mean- 
ing L  ward).  Th'  horgan's  in  'Hell/  an'  th' 
services  habout  to  begin." 

There  was  a  general  roar  of  laughter  and 
the  reverend  gentleman  strenuously  refused 
the  invitation. 

When  the  patients  were  well  on  the  road  to 
recovery,  they  would  be  sent  to  one  of  the 

210 


many  mansions  opened  by  the  owners  as 
homes  for  convalescents.  Here  they  would 
remain  for  a  few  weeks,  perhaps  a  month, 
before  being  sent  to  their  homes.  This  stay 
will  be  among  the  pleasantest  memories  of 
those  who  experienced  it.  The  beautifully- 
laid-out  and  spacious  grounds  and  the  auto 
rides !  How  it  all  helped  to  hasten  re- 
covery ! 

I  cannot  conclude  without  trying  to  express 
the  praise  which  most  certainly  belongs  to 
the  medical  officers  of  "Craigleith."  At  the 
outbreak  of  the  war,  Colonel  Cottrill  had  been 
retired  ten  years,  but  he  was  found  ready  when 
the  first  note  of  the  nation's  rally  sounded, 
and  there  he  remained  when  I  left,  serving  his 
king  and  country  in  relieving,  by  his  expert 
skill,  the  sufferings  of  those  who  come  under 
his  care.  He  was  over  seventy  years  of  age, 
but  he  most  truly  was  seventy  years  young. 

Of  the  nurses  and  sisters  I  could  not  say 
enough.  Sister  Lauder,  for  instance;  I  have 
seen  her  do  thirty-six  hours'  duty  at  one 
stretch,  without  the  sightest  rest,  at  a  time 
when  streams  of  wounded  were  pouring  in 
day  and  night.  Once  she  collapsed  in  the 

211 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

middle  of  the  ward.     Such   devotion,   such 
wonderful  spirit  these  women  exhibited! 

I  was  discharged  on  August  5th,  1915, 
being  "no  longer  physically  fit  for  war  ser- 
vice. (Para.  392,  XVI,  K.R.) 


212 


CHAPTER  FIFTEEN 

ON  A  day  in  February,  1916 — a  week 
prior  to  the  sailing  of  the  S.S.  Tuscania, 
on  which  I  had  taken  passage  to  the 
United  States — I  had  left  the  office  of  the  An- 
chor Line  and  was  proceeding  up  the  High 
Street,  of  Cowdenbeath  (across  the  river  from 
Edinburgh),  bent  on  an  errand  pertaining 
to  the  preparations  for  my  departure,  when 
I  noticed  across  the  way  something  familiar 
in  the  appearance  of  a  tall  man  in  khaki. 
Twice  or  thrice  I  gazed  at  him,  with  a  sense 
of  dim  recollection,  and  then  I  went  walking 
— or,  rather,  limping — on  my  way.  There  were 
uniforms  everywhere  and  one,  even  though 
it  seemed  in  some  way  distinctive,  could  not 
hold  my  attention.  I  started  to  cross  the 
street  but  when  I  was  in  the  car  track,  in  the 
middle,  a  sound  arrested  me. 

"Reuter!  Reuter!"  called  a  voice  which 
was  strangely  familiar. 

Who,  thought  I,  is  this,  calling  me  by  my 
213 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

nickname?  I  turned  and  saw  the  tall  soldier 
whom  I  had  noticed,  limping  toward  me  at 
the  best  gait  his  lameness  permitted.  I 
perceived  that  he  wore  a  Black  Watch  forage 
cap.  As  I  stood,  awaiting  his  approach,  I 
suddenly  recognized  him  as  my  chum,  Ned 

MacD ;  the  same  Ned  whom  I  had  left 

in  a  hollow,  in  a  wood,  in  France,  grievously 
wounded,  and  who  had  mysteriously  dis- 
appeared when  I  found  opportunity  to  return 
in  search  of  him. 

I  had  long  believed  him  dead,  for  his  name 
had  appeared  in  our  casualty  lists  among 
those  of  the  killed.  I  was  so  overcome  at 
seeing  him  that  I  stood  as  one  struck  dumb. 
In  a  moment,  however,  we  were  clasped  in 
each  other's  arms  like  a  couple  of  bairns,  the 
tears  trickling  down  our  faces. 

There  we  stood,  speaking  to  each  other 
as  Scots  will,  in  excitement,  in  the  broad 
Scotch  of  our  childhood  days,  until  a  sharp 
clang  awakened  us.  It  was  from  a  tramcar 
bell.  We  were  standing  in  the  middle  of  the 
single  line,  and  completely  blocking  traffic. 
Linking  our  arms  together  we  made  for  the 
pavement. 

214 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

"I'm  mighty  glad  I  met  ye,  Joe,"  was  his 
first  comment.  "I've  been  trying  to  find 
out  your  whereabouts.  To  think  that  Fate 
should  have  been  kind  enough  to  put  you  in 
my  way,  like  that;  man,  it's  just  grand!" 

I  told  him  of  my  mission  in  Cowdenbeath. 

"Weel,  I'm  glad  I've  caught  ye  in  time,  ye 
bounder,  cause  I  dinna  think  I  could  have 
followed  ye  to  the  States  to  make  a  visit  on 
ye,"  he  said. 

By  this  time  I  had  fully  recovered  myself 
and  scrutinized  him  carefully.  "You've  got 
the  same  smile,  Ned,  but  my  how  you've 
grown!  You  look  at  least  two  inches  taller 
than  when  I  saw  you  last." 

"And  that  I  might,"  he  replied;  "come  on 
and  I'll  tell  ye  all  about  it." 

So  we  limped  into  Cook's  tea  rooms,  se- 
cured a  table  in  a  quiet -corner,  and  he  told 
me  his  story.  He  spoke  in  a  halting  manner, 
for  it  brought  back  many  of  his  sufferings, 
but  to  me  it  is  so  striking  that  I  felt,  in  finish- 
ing the  tale  of  my  war  experience,  you  would 
like  to  know  about  a  war  romance — for 
romance  it  surely  was — with  as  happy  an 
ending  as  any  novelist  might  conceive.  I 

215 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

will  tell  to  you,  as  nearly  as  possible  in  his 
own  words,  the  remarkable  story  he  unfolded 
to  me. 

"Do  ye  mind  when  ye  left  me  in  the  nook 
after  bandaging  my  wounds?"  he  asked. 
"Weel,  I  lay  there  thinking  and  wondering. 
Ye  ken,  Reuter,  what  I  was  wondering  about 
— about  ye're  coming  back;  or  maybe  some- 
one else  might  find  me  and  take  me  back  to 
the  lines.  But  no  help  came.  Then  I  got  to 
thinking  of  the  lass,  and  I  managed  to  take 
her  letters,  as  well  as  a  few  fags,  from  my 
haversack.  I  smoked  the  fags  one  after  the 
other,  and  read  her  dear  kind  words  over 
and  over  again.  My  mind  kept  dwelling  on 
what  was  to  have  been  our  marriage  day. 
Reuter,  remember  I  told  ye  about  it.  It 
was  to  have  been  on  the  7th  of  August,  and 
then  on  account  of  the  war,  we  put  it  off  until 
after  I  should  come  back. 

"And  now,  I  thought  to  myself,  maybe 
I'll  never  get  back.  All  sorts  of  possibilities 
passed  through  my  mind,  and  between  this 
and  the  awful  pain  that  throbbed  all  over  me, 
I  felt  like  as  if  I'd  go  mad. 

"It  began^to  get  dark  and  my  patience 
216 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

got  exhausted.  Then  the  idea  came  into  my 
head  that  I  could  maybe  drag  myself  along 
with  my  hands  a  wee  bit  nearer  our  lines. 
I  thought  of  your  promise,  Renter,  but  I 
couldn't  stay.  A  few  of  the  lads  around  me 
pegged  out  one  after  the  other,  and  it  made 
me  feel  fair  frenzied. 

"Do  ye  remember  Stanley  Stenning,  an 
English  fellow  of  C  company?  Weel,  he 
crawled  out  a  wee  while  before  me.  I've 
heard  since  that  he  was  home,  but  minus  a 
leg,  but  I  haven't  heard  so  far  of  any  of  the 
other  wounded  fellows  that  were  in  the  nook 
with  me. 

"Weel,  to  get  back  to  my  own  experience. 
It  was  awful — the  pain — it  racked  me  through 
and  through,  as  I  tried  to  move  ahead  by 
the  aid  of  my  hands.  I  would  take  a  grip 
on  anything  I  could  get  hold  of  and  drag 
myself  on  a  wee  bit  at  a  time.  I  had  managed 
to  do  about  a  hundred  yards,  when  I  seemed 
to  sense  that  I  had  taken  the  wrong  direction, 
and  oh!  how  weak  I  was  about  that  time — 
it's  past  telling.  I  just  simply  had  to  lie 
there — I  couldn't  drag  myself  another  inch. 

"I  remember  seeing  a  few  bushes  about 
217 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

fifteen  yards  ahead — it  seemed  so  far! — and 
at  first  I  wished  I  could  manage  to  get  to 
them,  thinking  I  might  get  out  of  the  way  of 
the  enemy,  should  any  of  them  come  along. 
But  after  a  few  minutes  I  decided  it  was 
perhaps  as  well  that  I  was  exhausted,  because 
if  I  got  there  and  should  lose  consciousness, 
ye  might  not  find  me,  and  that  it  was  just 
as  weel  I  was  in  the  open.  So  I  tried  to  con- 
tent myself,  but  it  was  maddening. 

"In  dragging  myself  to  this  spot  I  passed 
here  and  there  one  of  our  lads — then  again 
I  would  make  out  one  of  the  Camerons — and 
Reuter,  they  were  so — still!  But  I  crawled 
on,  and  as  the  vision  of  the  lass  came  to  me, 
I  felt  braver,  and  made  up  my  mind  to  hold 
out  as  long  as  I  possibly  could. 

"By  this  time  it  was  night — the  time 
seemed  to  drag  so !  Then  I  remember  hearing 
the  sound  of  some  one  moving  about,  and 
I  was  just  in  the  act  of  calling  for  help  when 
the  thought  flashed  through  my  brain  that 
maybe  they  were  Germans;  so  I  kept  still. 
The  sound  soon  died  away.  My!  how  often, 
since  then,  I've  wished  I  had  called  out. 

"I  lay  there  wishing  and  hoping  that  I 

218 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

might  be  found  before  morning,  but  the  hours 
dragged  on.  I  was  growing  fainter  and 
fainter,  and  more  feverish. 

"At  last,  I  dimly  distinguished  the  presence 
of  a  party.  Then  I  saw  them  turn  over  some 
of  the  dead  Highlanders  as  they  came  across 
them,  give  each  a  kick,  and  pass  on.  By 
this  time  I  could  see  they  were  stretcher- 
bearers — and  Prussians,  at  that.  I  was 
already  on  my  back  and  therefore  hoped  they 
would  pass  me — praying  all  the  time  that 
they  would,  I  kept  staring  up  at  the  stars. 
The  Huns  were  passing,  but  it  was  over  my 
body.  The  carrier  at  the  front  of  the  empty 
stretcher  stepped  over  me,  but  the  man  in 
the  rear  stepped  directly  on  one  of  my 
wounded  legs.  The  pain  caused  me  to 
groan  out.  At  this  they  halted  and  spoke, 
gruffly,  in  German. 

"They  took  the  contents  out  of  my  pockets 
and  haversack,  opened  the  stretcher,  laid  it 
alongside  of  me,  rolled  me  very  roughly  onto 
it,  and  picked  it  up.  Every  once  in  a  while 
during  the  journey  to  the  dressing  station 
which  was  quite  some  distance  over  broken 
ground,  they  would  stop  and  drop  the  stretcher 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

on  the  ground,  which  caused  me  to  groan  more 
and  more.  There  were  hundreds  of  wounded 
Germans  at  the  station. 

"Here  I  was  rolled  out  of  the  stretcher. 
I  could  feel  that  the  pleats  of  my  kilt  were 
soaked  with  blood.  Presently  a  little  insignif- 
icant-looking German  with  spectacles  on 
looked  at  me,  and  asked  in  English:  'What 
is  the  nature  of  your  wounds?' 

"I  told  him.  He  looked  at  them  very 
hastily,  then  said:  'You  are  lucky.  They 
should  have  been  eight  inches  farther  up.' 
With  a  grunt  he  went  to  attend  to  the  Prus- 
sian patients. 

"With  that,  the  Hun  lying  next  to  me — he 
had  been  wounded  through  the  arm  and  foot 
—noticed  me  and  commenced  spitting  on  me 
and  cursing  in  German.  I  made  no  protest. 
I  was  too  utterly  weak  and  exhausted. 

"At  last  ambulances  drew  up  near  by,  and 
the  wounded  Germans,  after  having  their 
wounds  dressed,  were  placed  in  them.  My 
turn  came  to  be  carried  onto  the  ambulance, 
without,  however,  any  attention  having  been 
given  to  my  wounds.  After  a  great  deal  of 
jolting  about,  our  ambulance  drew  up  near 

220 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

a  railway  siding,  and  the  German  patients 
were  served  with  some  hot  coffee,  then  we 
were  all  put  on  board  a  train.  By  this 'time 
it  was  daylight.  Almost  as  soon  as  I  was 
put  on  the  train  it  began  to  move  off. 

"Shortly  afterward,  a  tall,  lean  German 
doctor  came  over  and  looked  at  me,  then 
renewed  my  dressing,  which  was  the  first 
since  yours,  Reuter.  He  asked  me  in  broken 
English  if  I  had  had  anything  to  eat.  When 
I  answered  in  the  negative,  he  walked  away 
and  looked  over  the  other  patients  and  talked 
to  them.  After  quite  some  time,  a  German 
orderly  came  to  me  with  some  hot  milk  and 
a  sandwich  of  black  bread  and  very  bad- 
smelling  cheese.  I  was  given  the  same 
treatment  as  the  others  while  on  the  train. 
The  doctor  told  me  there  were  more  English 
wounded  on  the  train,  but  that  was  all  he 
said.  I  cannot  say  how  long  I  was  on  the 
train,  but  at  last,  after  a  lot  of  shunting,  it 
halted,  and  all  the  German  wounded  were 
taken  off. 

"An  armed  guard  of  two  men  came  in  and 
took  their  posts  beside  me.  I  was  given 
coffee  and  more  black  bread  and  cheese.  I 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

was  transferred  into  a  sort  of  truck,  the  guard 
being  with  me.  They  cut  a  few  buttons  off 
my  jacket  as  souvenirs. 

"After  another  considerable  journey,  I 
was  put  into  a  motor  ambulance,  which 
brought  me  to  my  destination.  It  was  dark 
when  I  reached  this  place  and  I  could  not  see 
my  surroundings.  I  was  carried  into  a  hut- 
like  arrangement,  where  I  found  others, 
German  and  British  soldiers,  and  some  French 
also. 

"I  was  only  a  few  minutes  in  this  'hut* 
when  a  big  fat,  over-fed,  severe-looking  Ger- 
man officer  came  in  and  growled  out  some- 
thing in  a  rough  voice.  A  nurse  rushed  up 
to  his  side.  He  growled  out  something  else, 
and  she  immediately  went  out.  In  less  time 
than  it  takes  to  tell,  she  came  back  with  what 
no  doubt  he  had  been  growling  for.  It  was 
a  sheet  of  paper  and  he  commenced  reading 
from  it.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  the  English 
prisoners  would  not  be  allowed  to  disobey 
any  of  the  officers,  soldiers,  orderlies  or 
nurses — that  if  they  should  do  so  they  would 
be  instantly  put  to  death.  If  they  wished  to 
make  complaints  they  were  to  do  so  through 

222 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

the  orderlies.  However,  if  the  complaint 
should  not  be  a  proper  and  truthful  one, 
the  prisoner  making  it  would  be  liable  to  be 
put  to  death.  He  also  strongly  emphasized 
the  fact  that  if  any  prisoner  was  caught 
attempting  to  smuggle  or  write  letters,  the 
sentence  of  death  would  instantly  be  imposed 
on  him.  At  this  point  he  went  away.* 

"My  heart  sank.  I  got  so  homesick  and 
much  weaker;  my  hopes  gave  out  entirely. 
I  had  been  thinking  that,  on  reaching  my 
destination,  I  would  be  allowed  to  write  home; 
and  now ? 

"I  must  have  lost  consciousness,  for  it  was 
day  time  when  I  awoke,  to  find  two  doctors 
examining  my  legs,  with  a  number  of  young 
students  standing  around  me.  One  of  the 
doctors,  an  old  man,  who  spoke  excellent 
English,  said  that  both  my  thighs  were 
badly  fractured  and  that  it  would  be  necessary 
to  operate  on  me  the  next  morning.  Then 
he  commenced  explaining  to  the  young  doc- 

*  This  was  Ned's  individual  experience.  Prisoners 
in  other  hospitals  and  prison  camps  may  have  been 
allowed  to  write  home  even  at  that  time.  In  talking 
to  others  I  have  learned  that  the  prison  camps  in  Ger- 
many vary  a  great  deal. — THE  AUTHOR. 

223 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

tors.  After  the  explanation  was  over,  they 
all  walked  away. 

"The  next  morning  I  was  taken  to  the  oper- 
ating theatre,  which  had  a  gallery  all  'round 
packed  with  young  German  students.  On 
the  floor  there  were  only  a  nurse,  the  old 
doctor  who  had  spoken  to  me  the  previous 
day,  and  a  few  attendants.  I  was  lying  on  a 
sort  of  high-wheel  stretcher.  The  young 
students  were  laughing  and  jeering,  when 
suddenly  the  old  doctor  turned  on  them 
furiously,  using  some  hot  German  language, 
and  instantly  there  was  quietness.  Then  a 
cap  was  put  under  my  nose. 

"When  I  came  out  of  the  chloroform  there 
was  a  cage  arrangement  over  my  legs  and 
I  had  no  pillow  for  my  head.  At  the  moment 
I  thought  it  was  a  very  mean  trick  to  do  me 
out  of  it,  but  after  some  experience  in  the 
hospital  I  learned  that  it  was  to  prevent 
me  from  getting  sick  upon  recovering  from 
the  effects  of  the  anaesthetic. 

"There  were  about  eighteen  patients  and 
two  nurses  in  the  hut  where  I  was.  The  nurses 
took  turns  of  night  duty  week  about.  The 
day  nurse  during  my  first  week  there  was 

224 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

a  very  severe  and  sour-faced  creature.  She 
could  speak  a  little  English,  and  I'm  sure 
she  did  not  speak  to  me  more  than  twenty 
times,  and  not  once  kindly.  The  night  nurse 
was  a  woman  about  forty  years  of  age  She 
could  speak  only  a  very  little  English,  but 
she  was  pleasant  and  good-natured.  She  took 
more  care  of  me  than  any  of  them  and  would 
bring  me  a  glass  of  milk  now  and  again  when 
the  guards  were  not  looking.  She  also  in- 
formed me  that  this  was  the  place  that  stu- 
dents came  to,  for  practising  and  experiment- 
ing on  the  wounded  prisoners,  and  added 
that  I  would  have  a  lot  more  operations — 
which  I  had. 

"Conditions  became  worse  as  months 
dragged  on.  It  was  now  summer  of  1915, 
and  still  my  legs  were  not  allowed  to  set. 
One  operation  followed  another.  I  saw  an 
iron  plate  with  rusty  screw  nails  an  inch  long, 
that  had  been  used  to  patch  up  my  thigh 
bones.  I  suffered  much  physically — but  worse 
than  that  was  the  mental  suffering  I  expe- 
rienced, worrying  about  my  folks  at  home. 

"Every  other  day,  young  sarcastic  doctors 
would  come  in,  take  the  splints  off,  and 

225 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

commence  squeezing  and  turning  my  broken 
legs  in  a  painful  fashion.  Some  would  shout: 
'English  swine,  why  don't  you  cry  out?'  but 
I  don't  remember  doing  so  when  any  of  them 
were  near  me. 

"The  food  got  worse  and  worse  toward 
winter.  I  got  three  meals  a  day.  Breakfast 
consisted  of  weak  coffee  and  a  slice  of  black 
bread  with  some  kind  of  lard  spread  on  it. 
Dinner  was  herring  bone  or  potato-peel  soup, 
or  ham-bone  soup  with  a  slice  of  heavy  potato 
bread.  Supper  was  a  repetition  of  breakfast 
except  that  very  often  the  lard  was  absent. 

"There  were  two  German  patients  who  got 
the  best  of  attention.  I  learned  though,  that 
they  were  wounded  in  the  act  of  deserting, 
and  were  to  be  court-martialed  upon  recovery. 
After  they  were  able  to  sit  up  they  would  get 
a  large  jug  of  beer  with  their  midday  meal 
and  this  was  a  keen  torture  to  me. 

"I  became  determined  to  find  some  way 
of  communicating  with  my  sweetheart  and 
friends  at  home,  to  let  them  know  I  was 
still  alive.  The  night  nurse  told  me  she 
expected  to  go  near  the  firing  line  for  duty,  so 
I  asked  her  if  she  could  try  to  smuggle  out 

226 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

a  letter  for  me  so  that  it  would  reach^my 
friends.  At  first,  she  very  positively  refused, 
saying  that  should  the  effort  be  found  out, 
she  would  be  instantly  shot,  but  after  I  ex- 
plained my  case  to  her  and  pleaded  with  her 
she  brought  me  a  pencil  and  note  paper  and 
watched  a  chance  when  all  was  quiet.  She 
put  a  screen  round  me  and  whispered  in  my 
ear  to  praise  the  commandant,  and  the  doctors, 
and  write  in  the  brightest  manner  of  every- 
one there.  Thus,  she  said,  the  censor  might 
allow  the  letter  to  go  through. 

"  While  she  watched  the  guards,  I  scribbled, 
doing  all  she  told  me  to.  I  described  the  place 
and  commandant  something  in  the  following 
manner: 

This  is  a  most  beautiful  place.  I  think  it's  the 
prettiest  hospital  in  the  great  German  Empire.  It  is 
even  more  elaborate  than  the  wonderful  Peterhead 
sanatorium  at  home,  and  the  commandant  is  the 
nicest  old  gentleman.  The  staff,  here,  is  also  superior. 
We  get  the  best  of  food  and  plenty  of  it  and  all  kinds 
of  recreation.  Even  visitors  bring  English  magazines 
and  treat  me  like  a  relative. 

"After  finishing  it,  I  gave  it  to  the  nurse 
to  read.  I  had  written  all  the  sheet  could 
contain.  She  looked  it  over  and  seemed  very 

227 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

pleased  with  it  and  said  that  it  would  pass  the 
censor  all  right.  She  sealed  it,  then  affixed 
a  stamp,  and  hid  it  away  in  her  dress,  promis- 
ing to  post  it  next  morning. 

"I  thought  it  was  rather  neat,  my  working 
in  the  Peterhead  prison  in  Aberdeenshire,  as 
a  sanatorium." 

"After  the  nurse's  departure,  I  slept  peace- 
fully and  with  an  easy  mind,  as  if  a  great 
burden  had  been  lifted  from  it. 

"When  the  usual  batch  of  sarcastic  young 
German  students  came  next  morning  and 
started  in  jeering  at  me,  I  smiled.  One  of 
them  instantly  leaped  forward  and  gave  me 
a  stinging  blow  on  the  face  with  his  open 
palm.  I  managed  to  contain  myself — but 
how  I  did  it,  I  don't  know. 

"That  same  evening,  the  commandant 
came  in  raging.  He  nearly  ate  me  up,  while 
in  the  act  of  producing  the  letter  I  had 
written  the  previous  night.  I  longed  so  for 
the  ground  to  open  and  swallow  me  up.  He 
said  the  penalty  for  the  offence  was  death. 
At  first  I  denied  that  I  knew  anything  about 
the  letter,  but  he  shouted :  'Do  you  not  remem- 
ber giving  the  same  address  upon  coming  here?' 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

"  I  did,  only  too  well. 

"After  blazing  out, on  me,  he  left,  cursing  in 
German.  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  was 
doomed,  but  decided  to  lie  as  long  as  I  could 
on  my  cot,  as  I  felt  that  I  would  no  doubt  be 
shot  as  soon  as  I  was  able  to  get  out  of  bed. 
That  night  a  big  masculine-looking  nurse 
came  on  duty,  and  she  was  a  perfect  virago. 

"I  learned  with  deep  regret  that  the  kind 
nurse  was  moved — perhaps  shot.  I  watched 
my  chance,  and  at  night,  when  no  one  had 
eyes  on  me,  I  twisted  in  such  a  fashion  that 
my  thigh  bones  could  not  possibly  get  a  chance 
to  knit  together.  The  agony  I  suffered  was 
fearful,  but  I  did  not  care.  In  the  morning 
my  temperature  would  go  up  and  further 
operations  would  follow.  I  continued  doing 
this  for  a  week  or  so  but  at  last  I  could  not 
stand  it.  I  just  had  to  lie  still. 

"In  December  I  began  to  get  up  for  a  few 
hours  daily.  It  was  torture  to  me  when  I 
tried  to  move  around.  I  was  so  very  weak 
and  all  the-  muscle  and  flesh  had  left  my 
body.  I  was  reduced  to  almost  skin  and 
bone. 

"I  was  not  even  given  a  stick  to  support 
229 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

me.  I  limped  about  for  a  few  weeks,  then 
received  my  uniform  and  was  moved  to  the 
prisoners'  enclosure,  where  there  were  one 
thousand  British  prisoners.  Like  myself, 
none  of  these  fellows  was  allowed  to  write 
home,  and  I  don't  suppose  they  will  be— 
until  they  are  set  free.  We  were  crowded 
into  tents.  The  food  was  terrible;  I  have 
seen  pigs  get  better.  But  we  ate  it  just  the 
same. 

"The  next  morning  after  breakfast,  we 
were  all  marched  out  to  make  roads,  chop 
wood,  and  do  all  kinds  of  convict  work.  Some 
of  the  men  had  a  leg  off,  others  had  an  arm 
off  as  well  as  being  otherwise  crippled;  but 
they  all  had  to  work. 

"I  wasn't  able  to  keep  up  with  the  rest  while 
marching  out  to  the  place  where  I  was  to 
work  and  one  of  the  German  guards  started 
poking  the  butt  of  his  rifle  into  my  ribs. 
This  was  his  way  of  making  me  keep  up  with 
the  rest  of  them.  I  tried  hard  and  finally 
managed  to  reach  the  spot  where  our  men 
were  working.  I  was  given  wood  to  saw. 

"I  managed  to  stick  to  it  about  half  an  hour, 
then  I  fainted.  When  I  came  to  myself  again 

230 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

a  big  dirty  Prussian  was  kicking  me  and 
telling  me  to  get  on  with  my  work.  But  I 
couldn't.  Upon  seeing  this,  a  man  from  our 
squad  was  ordered  to  wheel  me  back  to  camp 
in  a  barrow  with  a  German  walking  along- 
side with  his  rifle  slung  over  his  shoulder, 
smoking  a  long  pipe  and  jeering  all  the  way. 
I  was  at  once  classed  as  *  worthless/ 

"Our  officers  had  to  work  like  the  other 
men,  but  the  special  job  given  them  was 
road-sweeping.  I  was  given  some  dirty  work 
to  do  around  the  prison  camp  for  a  few  days, 
until  at  last  I  had  to  be  put  in  the  hospital 
again  on  account  of  weakness.  One  of  my 
legs  was  shorter  than  the  other,  owing  to 
the  manner  in  which  they  had  practised  on 
me. 

"This  time  I  was  in  the  hospital  only  about 
two  weeks.  Then  I  got  my  clothes,  and  the 
commandant  came  in  and  informed  me  that 
he  got  orders  to  supply  six  worthless  English 
prisoners  from  the  camp  for  exchange.  'You 
are  the  first  on  the  list/  he  said.  'You  are  no 
good  to  anybody.  You  cannot  even  work 
for  the  food  you  get.' 

"I  could  hardly  realize  my  good  fortune. 
231 


I  wept  with  joy.  To  think  of  being  sent  home 
as  an  exchanged  prisoner! 

"I  'fell  in'  along  with  five  more  fellows, 
one  was  stone  blind;  his  face  was  an  awful 
sight — all  dark  blue  as  if  it  had  been  tattooed. 
The  other  four  had  body  injuries.  We  were 
placed  in  a  motor  truck  which  conveyed  us 
to  a  railway  station,  then  we  were  packed  in 
trucks  with  a  few  sentries  over  us. 

"One  of  the  sentries,  out  of  pity,  gave  one 
of  our  men  a  cigarette.  The  poor  fellow 
had  just  lighted  it  off  the  stump  the  sentry 
was  about  to  throw  away,  when  a  German 
officer  rushed  forward  and  knocked  it  out 
of  his  mouth  with  his  glove,  and  had  him  taken 
away  at  once.  The  sentry  who  had  given 
him  the  fag  was  ordered  to  take  off  his  equip- 
ment, and  two  of  the  German  guards  marched 
the  British  prisoner  and  German  sentry 
away. 

"Two  nights  later  we  landed  at  a  port  and 
were  marched  on  to  a  steamer.  I  think  it 
was  a  Dutch  boat,  as  I  did  not  see  any 
Germans  on  board  until  we  were  out  at  sea, 
when  we  were  gathered  together,  and  a  Ger- 
man staff  officer  of  the  navy  gave  us  a  lecture. 

232 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

He  finished  up  by  saying  that  we  were  not 
free  of  the  German  Government  until  we 
landed  in  England,  and  should  any  of  us  dis- 
obey while  on  board,  we  would  at  once  be 
sent  back  to  Germany.  You  may  depend 
upon  it  that  we  obeyed. 

"After  we  boarded  the  boat  we  were 
given  some  Capstan  Navy-Cut  Cigarettes— 
and  got  a  good  meal,  the  first  since  I  had 
been  taken  prisoner.  I  was  so  overjoyed 
that  I  sat  in  a  corner  and  did  not  utter  a  word 
until  I  landed  on  British  soil,  then  I  prayed 
silently  and  thanked  God  for  bringing  me 
back  to  a  civilized  country.  I  think  there 
were  over  six  hundred  exchanged  British 
prisoners  on  the  same  boat. 

"When  we  landed  in  England,  we  were 
taken  to  a  hospital,  and  those  of  us  who  were 
able  to  travel  were  asked  if  we  wanted  to 
go  straight  home  for  a  few  days,  and  report 
for  medical  treatment  in  our  own  districts. 
I  think  all  those  who  weren't  able  to  do  much 
more  than  crawl  said  they  preferred  to  go 
straight  home.  Next  morning  at  8  o'clock 
I  was  given  two  sovereigns  and  a  furlough, 
pending  discharge. 

233 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

"After  receiving  the  money,  I  boarded  the 
first  train  for  Auchterarder,  where  'the  lass* 
lived.  She  had  opened  a  millinery  business  in 
my  absence.  The  train  left  at  10  A.M.,  and  I 
arrived  at  Auchterarder  depot  at  8.15  P.M.  It 
was  about  a  mile  from  the  station  to  Jeanie's 
house.  I  wanted  to  get  there  as  soon  as  I 
could,  and  walking  was  out  of  the  question. 
So  I  managed  to  coax  a  teamster  to  go  a  little 
bit  out  of  his  way  and  let  me  off  near  her 
home.  I  wanted  to  surprise  her,  so  went  on 
upstairs  in  her  house  quietly.' 

"As  I  climbed  up  I  could  hear  the  sound  of 
much  merriment  coming  from  the  upper 
rooms.  The  first  thought  that  struck  me  was 
that  perhaps  she  had  been  already  notified 
and  was  preparing  a  surprise  for  me.  Yet  it 
seemed  strange,  as  I  had  sent  no  word  ahead 
of  me — not  even  a  telegram. 

"I  felt  real  nervous  upon  reaching  the  door, 
and  wondered  what  I  should  say  on  entering 
it.  At  last  I  summoned  up  courage  and 
opened  the  door.  I  stood  still.  The  sight  that 
met  me  dazed  me.  I  couldn't  believe  my 
own  eyes. 

"In  the  room  there  were  many  young  ladies 
234 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

—most  of  them  dressed  in  white.  I  recognized 
some  of  their  faces.  Jeanie  was  standing  in 
the  centre,  dressed  as  a  bride  with  a  bouquet 
clasped  in  her  arm. 

"I  was  beginning  to  think  that  it  surely 
was  a  most  heavenly  surprise.  But  they 
caught  sight  of  me  and  it  seemed  as  if  -they 
all  made  for  the  farthest  corners  of  the 
room.  They  looked  at  me  in  what  seemed  to 
be  terror. 

"Jeanie  stared  at  me  for  a  moment.  She 
was  very  pale.  I  wondered  why  she  didn't 
rush  forward  and  greet  me — as  I  felt  she 
ought — with  outstretched  arms.  At  that  I 
started  to  make  for  her  side.  She  gasped 
out  'Ned' — and  sank  to  the  floor  in  a 
faint. 

"While  I  was  leaning  over  her,  there  was 
a  commotion  at  the  door.  I  looked  around 
and  saw  the  clergyman  enter,  with  one  of 
my  old-time  chums  dressed  as  a  bridegroom. 
Upon  recognizing  me  the  bridegroom  looked 
bewildered,  but  the  next  moment  he  had 
recovered  himself.  ;  He  approached  me  and 
shook  hands,  telling  me,  with  an  odd  and 
embarrassed  manner  that  my  arrival  was 

235 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

timely.  He  added:  'If  you  had  been  delayed 
half  an  hour,  Jeanie  and  I  would  have  been 
married  by  now.  It  seems  as  if  Fate  has 
taken  a  hand  in  this/ 

"He  told  me  that  Jeanie  had  been  worry- 
ing and  was  continually  talking  about  me, 
and  that  she  didn't  believe  I  was  dead, 
although  I  had  been  reported  'killed  or 
missing'  since  September,  1914.  He  had  told 
her  that  she  was  foolish  to  keep  up  this 
thought,  and  finally  had  persuaded  her  to 
become  engaged  to  him,  The  date  for  the 
marriage  was  fixed  for  the  night  on  which 
I  arrived. 

"During  this  time  the  bride  was  being  at- 
tended by  some  of  the  other  young  ladies 
and  had  been  revived. 

"The  intended  bridegroom  went  to  her  side 
and  asked  if  she  still  cared  for  me.  Her  answer 
was:  'If  he  loves  me,  yes'  He  approached 
me  again,  asking  whether  I  cared  for  her  still. 
Oh,  I  wanted  to  say  how  I  loved  her  and  how 
anxiously  and  hurriedly  I  had  made  my 
way  to  her  on  reaching  British  soil,  but  I 
was  too  overcome  for  words;  I  could  only 
nod  an  assent.  Do  you  know,  Renter,  what 

236 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

this  old  pal  did?     He  withdrew,  giving  me 
his  place,  and  he  acted  as  Best  Man. 

"Since  then  I've  wondered  whether,  if  it 
had  been  any  other  man,  he  would  have 
stepped  aside  so.  He  loved  her  as  I  did,  no 
doubt,  but  it  seems  she  couldn't  forget  me,  no 
matter  how  he  tried  to  make  her  do  so;  so, 
realizing  all  this  at  the  time,  he  did  what  he 
thought  would  give  her  the  greatest  happiness. 
I  had  suffered  sorely,  Reuter,  but  surely  I 
was  well  rewarded.  The  pal  who  had  expected 
to  have  my  place  gave  us  a  hundred  pounds 
as  his  gift  to  help  us  along  in  business.  We 
were  married  that  same  night — only  three 
days  ago.  So  you  see,  Reuter,  I  lost  no  time 
in  trying  to  find  you  to  tell  you  of  my  complete 
happiness." 

We  left  the  tea  rooms,  and  I  accompanied 
Ned  to  the  railway  station,  where  he  took 
the  train  for  his  home  town.  As  we  parted 
he  wished  me  the  best  of  success  in  America, 
and  hoped  that  he  would  hear  of  my  getting 
married  very  soon,  for  he  assured  me  he  was 
so  happy  that  he  wished  to  know  that  such 
happiness  was  mine  also. 

237 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

I  made  for  home  then,  and  in  less  than 
a  week's  time  I  was  on  my  way  to  the 
States. 

Ned's  good  wishes  for  me  have  certainly 
been  fulfilled.  I  have  since  married,  and  it 
is  my  wife  who  has  proved  my  sole  inspiration 
and  help  in  writing  this  book. 


238 


CHAPTER  SIXTEEN 

NO  DOUBT,  if  I  had  been  trained  in 
writing  rather  than  in  the  tactical 
requirements  for  service  in  the  British 
army,  I  should  call  this  the  appendix  of  my 
book.  I  prefer  not  to  do  so,  having  found  in 
my  own  experience  that  readers  may  be  in- 
clined to  view  the  appendix  in  literature  as 
similar  to  the  appendix  in  surgery — some- 
thing which  is  unnecessary. 

I  cannot  so  regard  this  chapter.  It  is  to 
me  a  component  and  interesting  part  of  the 
whole,  for  it  goes  to  the  source  of  the  splendid 
and  unique  traditions  of  the  regiment  in  which 
I  have  been  privileged  to  serve  as  a  soldier 
of  my  country. 

A  great  deal  has  been  written  about  the 
Black  Watch.  Even  poets  have  been  inspired 
to  sing  of  its  deeds  in  stanzas  which  are  undy- 
ing. Men  of  Highland  birth,  glorying  in  its 
history,  have  set  down  the  facts  of  its  achieve- 
ments under  England's  banner.  Yet  most 

239 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

of  these  records  are  composed  of  dry  facts, 
with  no  expressed  sense  of  the  romantic  and 
the  unusual  which  enter  so  largely  into  the 
history  of  the  most  famous  fighting  organ- 
ization in  the  world.  And  most  of  them,  also, 
might  be  written  from  the  viewpoint  of  a 
century  ago.  They  do  not  bring  the  recital 
of  the  achievements  of  the  Black  Watch 
into  the  atmosphere  of  to-day,  with  due 
regard  for  the  interesting  and  almost  startling 
effect  of  contrast. 

This  thought  came  to  me  one  day  when  I 
was  riding  on  a  trolley  through  one  of  the 
busy  districts  of  that  part  of  Greater  New 
York  which  lies  east  of  the  bridged  river,  and 
suddenly  realized  that  I  was  passing  over 
the  very  ground  upon  which  the  Black  Watch 
had  its  first  important  engagement  in  the  war 
of  the  American  Revolution — the  Battle  of 
Brooklyn.  I  recalled  that  on  this  very  spot, 
where  clanging  trolleys,  quick  motor  cars 
and  hurrying  pedestrians  made  a  confusing 
rush  of  traffic,  the  men  of  the  Black  Watch 
fought,  in  the  fashion  of  their  forefathers,  with 
broadsword  and  pistol,  against  the  sturdy 
pioneers  whose  descendants  are  now  the 

240 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

allies  of  our  nation  in  a  war  for  world  freedom. 
In  the  annals  of  our  regiment,  the  use  of  the 
broadsword  and  pistol  in  the  Battle  of  Brook- 
lyn is  duly  recorded,  for  it  was  after  this 
engagement  that  the  regiment  was  required 
to  lay  aside  these  mediaeval  weapons — a  fact 
which  occasioned  such  discontent  among  the 
veterans  of  the  Watch  that  there  was  even 
fear  that  the  Highland  stubbornness  might 
manifest  itself  as  markedly  in  protest  as  on 
the  occasion — in  England,  in  1743 — when  the 
men  of  the  regiment,  confronted  with  orders 
issued  in  ignorance  of  the  Highland  charac- 
teristics and  customs,  departed  quietly,  in 
a  body,  without  the  knowledge  of  their  offi- 
cers, and  marched  as  far  as  Northampton 
with  the  intention  of  returning  to  their 
Highland  homes,  relinquishing  the  purpose 
only  when  prolonged  negotiations  had  made 
the  facts  of  the  situation  plain  to  their  stub- 
born minds. 

On  the  whole,  however,  this  disposition 
on  the  part  of  the  men  of  the  Black  W'atch 
could  hardly  be  called  surprising,  in  view  of 
the  ignorance  regarding  the  Highland  charac- 
ter then  prevalent  in  England.  Three  years 

241 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

before,  King  George  the  Second,  having  never 
seen  a  Scotch  Highlander — although  the  Black 
Watch  had  already  been  organized  in  the 
Highlands  as  the  Forty-third  regiment  of  the 
British  army — asked  to  have  some  examples 
of  the  race  sent  to  appear  before  him  and  his 
court.  Two  Highlanders,  Gregor  MacGregor 
and  John  Campbell,  appeared  in  response 
to  the  King's  command.  (A  third,  John 
Grant,  began  the  journey  to  London  with  them 
but  died  on  the  way.)  MacGregor  and 
Campbell  gave  exhibitions  of  their  dexterity 
with  the  broadsword  and  the  Lochaber  axe, 
in  the  presence  of  the  King  and  his  Court. 
When  they  had  finished  the  King  gave  each 
a  gold  guinea  as  a  gratuity.  They  gave  the 
coins  as  a  tip  to  the  porter,  on  their  departure. 
The  King  had  not  understood  that  his  guests 
were  Highland  gentlemen. 

Sitting  at  the  window  of  the  house  where 
I  now  pass  the  peaceful  and  uneventful  days 
of  the  soldier  who  has  fought  until  wounds 
incapacitate  him  for  further  service  afield, 
I  smiled,  one  day,  at  another  thought  in  which 
the  past  and  the  present  incongruously  came 
into  association.  From  this  window,  I  viewed 

242 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

the  populous,  close-built  residential  stretches 
of  Washington  Heights,  typical  of  the  city 
life  of  to-day.  And,  amid  all  this,  my  eye 
could  seek  out  the  very  spot  where  occurred 
the  grimly  humorous  adventure  of  Major 
Murray,  most  corpulent  of  the  officers  of 
the  Black  Watch,  when  the  command  was 
fighting  against  Washington's  rebellious  pa- 
triots. Having  to  scale  the  heights  which 
were  later  to  become  famous  as  the  habitat 
of  the  hardy  goats  of  Harlem,  Major  Murray 
was  at  a  great  disadvantage  because  of  his 
weight  and  girth.  "Soldiers,  would  you  leave 
me  behind?"  he  appealed,  pathetically,  when 
he  needed  assistance.  And  then  his  husky 
Highlanders  would  boost  him  upward  to- 
ward the  fray.  It  was,  consequently,  in 
a  somewhat  breathless  and  confused  condi- 
tion that  the  valiant  major  attained  the 
spot  upon  the  heights  where  the  conflict 
raged.  Rushing  forward  to  close  with  some 
antagonist  in  the  Colonials,  Major  Murray 
discovered  that  his  only  weapon,  his  dirk, 
had  got  twisted  behind  him  in  the  strenuous 
struggles  of  the  ascent  and  that,  because 
of  his  excessive  fatness,  he  couldn't  reach  it. 

243 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

The  records  of  the  regiment,  at  the  home 
station,  Perth,  state  that  the  major,  on  this 
occasion,  tore  a  sword  from  the  grasp  of  one 
of  three  Colonials  who  attacked  him  and  put 
all  three  to  flight*  With  no  thought  to  cast 
aspersion  upon  the  major's  valour,  I  have 
always  been  inclined  to  the  belief  that  the 
writer  of  the  regimental  reports  may  have 
compensated  in  a  certain  generosity  of  state- 
ment for  his  earlier  description  of  the  major's 
comic  predicament. 

Study  of  the  history  of  the  Black  Watch, 
gathered,  largely,  in  a  fragmentary  way, 
has  always  had  a  fascination  for  me.  I  have 
felt  in  the  greatest  degree  the  pride  of  mem- 
bership in  the  organization — and  the  world 
knows  that  the  men  of  the  Black  Watch  have 
always  made  much  of  the  name,  I  feel  that 
tradition  had  well  prepared  the  regiment  for 
its  sacrificial  and  almost  superhuman  efforts 
between  Mons  and  the  Marne.  For  hard 
fighting  and  long  fighting — in  every  quarter 
of  the  globe  and  with  opponents  of  almost 
every  race — civilized  and  uncivilized — not  or- 
ganized fighting  force  has  ever  had  a  record 
to  equal  that  of  the  Black  Watch. 

244 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

The  regiment  got  its  name  in  1729,  when 
six  companies  of  Highlanders  which  had 
constituted  a  sort  of  military  police  along 
the  highland  border,  were  joined  together 
into  a  more  or  less  homogeneous  command. 
Four  of  these  companies  had  been  in  existence 
for  a  few  years.  Two  were  of  organization 
of  that  year.  They  were  called  the  Inde- 
pendent Companies  of  Highlanders  but  it 
was  their  purpose  to  co-operate  to  preserve 
order  among  the  turbulent  spirits  of  the  bor- 
der and  to  enforce  the  disarming  act.  High- 
landers from  the  broken  clans  flocked  to  the 
banners  of  the  Independent  Companies,  as 
this  gave  them  the  right  still  to  bear  arms. 
Many  of  them  were  Highland  gentlemen,  who 
came  with  their  servants  to  carry  their  arms  and 
belongings.  The  companies  were  commanded 
by  Lord  Lovat,  Campbell  of  Lochnell,  Grant  of 
Ballindalloch,  Campbell  of  Fonab,  Campbell 
of  Carrick,  and  Munro  of  Culcairn.  Approxi- 
mately, there  were  a  hundred  men  in  each  com- 
pany. They  wore  the  dark  tartan  of  the  clan 
Campbell,  and  thus  came  to  be  called  the  Frea- 
ceadan  Dubh,  or  Black  Watch,  as  distinguished 
from  the  saighdearan  dearg,  or  red  soldiers. 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

For  ten  years,  these  six  companies  served 
on  the  border,  constituting  a  slender  but 
effective  bulwark  between  two  neighbouring 
but  utterly  different  peoples.  In  this  day— 
when  it  is  but  a  pleasant  outing  to  motor 
from  England  into  the  Highlands — it  seems 
almost  unbelievable  that  the  laws,  language, 
customs,  and  social  usages  of  the  Highlanders 
should  for  centuries  have  remained  utterly 
different  from  those  of  England  and  the 
lowlands,  and  that  the  people  of  the  lowlands 
should  have  almost  no  knowledge  of  neigh- 
bours so  near.  The  sturdy  and  soldierly 
qualities  of  the  Highlanders  of  the  six  com- 
panies, however,  couldn't  escape  the  notice 
of  England's  generals,  ever  seeking  new  drafts 
for  England's  fighting  forces. 

In  1739  it  was  decided  that  a  foot  regiment 
of  Highlanders  should  be  added  to  the  regular 
establishment  of  the  army,  the  six  Independ- 
ent Companies  being  augmented  by  four 
new  companies  to  constitute  the  regimental 
strength. 

In  1740  this  regiment — commanded  by  the 
Earl  of  Crawford  and  Lindsay,  as  colonel- 
was  paraded  for  the  first  time  on  a  field,  near 

246 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Aberfeldy.  Until  then,  the  Black  Watch 
had  been  uniformed  only  in  the  fact  that  each 
member  wore  the  philleadh  mor  or  belted 
plaid,  of  the  Campbell  tartan.  No  one  but 
a  Highlander  could  ever  adjust  this  dress. 
It  consisted  of  twelve  yards  of  tartan,  two- 
thirds  of  it  gathered  in  pleats,  held  by  a  belt 
round  the  waist,  and  the  other  third  folded 
around  the  body  and  clasped  with  a  buckle, 
on  the  left  shoulder. 

The  uniform  and  individual  equipment  of 
the  new  regiment,  which  was  called  the  Forty- 
third  Foot,  is  described  in  detail  in  an  old 
order  of  the  day.  It  consisted  of  "scarlet 
jacket  and  waistcoat,  with  buff  facings  and 
white  lace;  the  phileag  beag,  or  little  kilt; 
a  blue  bonnet,  with  check  border  of  red, 
white,  and  green,  and  a  tuft  of  feathers; 
musket,  bayonet,  pistol,  broadsword,  dirk 
and  target."  The  first  march  of  the  regiment 
was  from  beside  the  waters  of  the  Tay — where 
it  had  encamped  for  more  than  a  year — to 
Perth,  in  which  city  the  home  station  of  the 
regiment  was  then  established  and  still  is 
maintained.  | 

When  I  outfitted  there,  with  my  contingent 

247 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

of  first  reserve  men,  at  the  outbreak  of  this 
war,  the  thought  came  to  my  mind  that, 
three  times  before,  the  Black  Watch  had 
moved  from  Perth  to  fight  in  Flanders. 

I  have  never  seen  a  succinct  summary  of 
the  activities  of  the  Black  Watch.  Though 
far  abler  writers  than  I  have  described  its 
separate  campaigns,  each  of  these  writers 
has  given  but  a  limited  view  of  the  long  vista 
of  sturdy  fighting  which  visualizes  the  regi- 
ment's history.  From  such  sources  of  infor- 
mation as  I  have  had,  the  following  summary 
has  been  extracted.  Surely  it  will  tell  a  story 
of  interest  to  every  man  who  is  interested  in 
the  traditions  of  Britain's  "far-flung  battle 
line." 

The  regiment  marched  from  Perth  to  Lon- 
don, in  1743,  and,  after  a  mutiny — due  to 
tales  of  scandal-mongers  that  the  Highlanders 
were  to  be  sent  to  the  American  plantations- 
made  its  first  journey  overseas,  going  to  fight 
in  Flanders  under  the  command  of  the  Earl 
of  Stair.  After  Fontenoy,  the  regiment 
covered  the  British  retreat  and  lost,  among 
their  officers,  five  Campbells.  In  this  battle 
thev  were  commanded  by  Sir  Robert  Munro. 

248 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

The  Black  Watch,  then  called  the  43rd 
Highlanders,  was  transferred  to  England, 
and  most  of  the  companies  were  kept  in  Kent, 
during  the  Jacobite  uprising.  Three  com- 
panies were  engaged  in  Scotland  in  putting 
down  the  insurrection,  and  one  was  at  the 
battle  of  Prestonpans.  I  quote  from  a  story 
of  the  Black  Watch  written  by  Lauchlan 
MacLean  Watt  in  saying  that  "the  other 
two  companies  had  an  unwilling  share  in  the 
deplorable  outrages  in  the  Highland  Glens 
after  Culloden,  which  made  the  name  of  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland  worthy  to  be  placed 
amongst  those  of  his  blood  who  have  won 
similar  distinction  in  Belgium,  to-day." 

The  Black  Watch  was  sent  to  France,  in 
1746,  thence  to  Ireland  and  back  to  Flanders 
in  1747. 

In  1749  it  was  returned  to  Ireland  where 
it  remained  eight  years.  In  this  year 
the]  regimental  number  was  changed  to  the 
42nd. 

In  1757  the  regiment  was  a  part  of  the  expe- 
ditionary force  sent  to  America  for  the 
French  and  Indian  war.  At  Ticonderoga 
it  served  so  valiantly  and  suffered  such 

B40 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

terrific  losses  that  the  name  "The  Royal  High- 
landers" was  conferred  upon  it. 

The  regiment  next  fought  at  Martinique 
and  Guadaloupe,  returning  to  fight  again  in 
Canada  and  take  an  important  part  in  the 
battle  which  compelled  the  surrender  of 
Montreal.  Altogether,  it  served  seven  years 
in  the  West  Indies  and  North  America.  It 
was  only  at  this  period  that  company  sergeants 
were  given  carbines  instead  of  the  Lochaber 
axes  which  they  had  always  carried. 

In  1775  the  regiment  returned  to  Scotland, 
having  been  absent  32  years. 

In  April,  1776,  the  regiment  embarked  again 
for  America,  this  time  to  fight  in  the  revolu- 
tion of  the  American  colonists.  They  were 
disembarked  on  Staten  Island,  and,  as  I 
have  said,  they  were  engaged  and  suffered 
some  losses  in  the  Battle  of  Brooklyn.  They 
also  suffered  heavily  in  the  Battle  of  the 
Brandywine. 

The  Black  Watch  next  fought  against 
Hyder  Ali,  in  India,  in  1782. 

In  1795  it  took  part  in  the  defence  of  Nieu- 
port,  in  Flanders,  and  suffered  much  in  the 
Gildersmalsen  retreat,  in  that  campaign. 

250 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

Back  again,  the  regiment  went,  after  this, 
to  the  West  Indies  and  in  this  campaign  the 
men  were  first  given  a  uniform  suitable  to 
wear  in  the  tropics.  Its  principal  features 
were  white  duck  trousers  and  round  hats. 
The  mutations  of  world  warfare  had  had 
their  effect.  The  Highlanders  were  willing 
to  put  on  pantaloons.  There  were  but  five 
companies  of  the  regiment  on  this  expedition. 
The  whole  regiment  was  reassembled,  how- 
ever, in  the  following  ryear,  at  Gibraltar, 
and  fought  as  a  whole  in  the  capture  of 
Minorca. 

The  year  1800  found  the  regiment,  unaer 
Sir  Ralph  Abercromby,  in  Egypt.  During 
the  fighting  with  Napoleon's  armies,  there, 
the  regiment  lost  its  commander  in  action. 

In  1808  the  Black  Watch  was  among  the 
British  forces  in  the  Peninsula  and  suffered 
extreme  privation  and  heavy  losses  on  the 
retreat  from  Corunna. 

In  the  following  year  the  regiment  was  on 
the  ill-fated  expedition  to  Walcheren,  return- 
ing with  less  than  one-third  of  its  original 
strength.  Three  years  later  they  were  in 
Portugal  again. 

251 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

After  the  escape  of  Napoleon  the  regiment 
fought  through  to  Waterloo,  though  without 
playing  an  important  part  in  that  last  great 
battle. 

It  then  fought  through  the  campaign  of 
the  Crimea  as  a  part  of  Sir  Colin  Campbell's 
Highland  brigade. 

Within  a  year  it  was  in  the  lead  of  the  force 
of  six  thousand  men  which  Sir  Colin  led  against 
twenty-five  thousand  mutineers  at  Cawnpore. 

Its  next  hard  fighting  was  in  the  Ashanti 
campaign,  under  General  Sir  Garnet  Wolse- 
ley. 

In  1881  it  was  combined  with  the  73rd 
Highland  regiment  (formerly  the  2nd  bat- 
talion of  the  Black  WTatch)  and  in  the  next 
year  was  back,  fighting  in  Egypt.  Through 
the  whole  of  that  war  in  Egypt  it  was  in  the 
fore-front,  fighting  with  distinction  up  to 
the  end  of  the  expedition  which  was  organized 
for  the  relief  of  Gordon  at  Khartoum. 

The    regiment    suffered    its    most    terrific 

losses — up  to  those  of  the  retreat  from  Mons 

—in    the    South    African    campaign.      The 

slaughter  of  the  Black  Watch,   at  Magers- 

fontein,  when  the  Boers  ambushed  it  in  close 

252 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

formation,  was  the  most  shocking  news  that 
came  to  England  from  the  Cape. 

The  story  of  the  2nd  Battalion  of  the  regi- 
ment and  its  deeds  is  a  separate  one,  through 
several  decades.  It  sailed  to  India  in  1780 
and  was  in  action  in  all  of  the  big  and  little 
Indian  wars  of  that  early  and  troublous 
time.  In  1809  it  was  made  a  separate  regi- 
ment and  called  the  73rd  Highlanders.  As 
such  it  served  at  Waterloo,  and  it  remained 
a  separate  unit  until  1881,  when  it  was  re- 
united with  the  original  1st  Battalion. 

The  Black  Watch,  as  now  organized,  might 
almost  be  called  a  small  army.  There  is 
a  depot  battalion  at  Perth,  four  territorial 
battalions  in  Scotland  and  six  service  bat- 
talions. 

In  1905,  I  enlisted  in  the  1st  Battalion  of 
the  Black  Watch — the  same  "Royal  High- 
landers" that  had  won  its  designation  at 
Ticonderoga.  In  1907,  I  was  transferred  to 
the  2nd  Battalion,  which  had  been  known  as 
the  73rd  Highlanders.  I  joined  them  at  their 
station  at  Peshawar,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
famous  Kyber  Pass,  in  Afghanistan.  In  the 
athletic  contests  for  which  the  regiment  was 

253 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

famous,  I  met  as  a  competitor,  Ned  MacD— 

the   same   Ned   MacD whose   romantic 

story  I  have  told  in  a  previous  chapter. 
After  a  time  we  were  the  regimental  cham- 
pions, and,  many  a  day  in  India,  we  strenu- 
ously upheld  the  honour  of  the  Black  Watch 
in  competition  with  the  men  of  other  regi- 
ments. 

My  athletic  days  and  my  fighting  days  are 
over.  But  ever  my  blood  will  quicken  with 
the  thought  that  I  have  played  my  part  and 
done  my  service  and  shed  my  blood  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Black  Watch,  fighting  for  Right 
and  for  the  Freedom  of  Mankind.  The  pain 
of  old  wounds  will  ever  vanish,  the  regrets 
for  departed  comrades  will  ever  fade  into 
forgetfulness  when  I  read,  again,  the  verses 
which  paraphrase  the  title  conferred  by  the 
bodies  upon  the  Black  watch — upon  us ! 

There's  a  toss  o'  th'  sporran, 

A  swing  o'  th'  kilt, 
A  screech  frae  th'  pipers 

In  blood-stirrin'  lilt; 
They  step  out  together 

As  pibroch  notes  swell — 
Oh,  they're  bonny,  braw  fighters, 
"The  ladies  from  Hell." 

254 


THE  BLACK  WATCH 

They're  far  frae  th'  heather 

An'  far  frae  th'  moor; 
As  th'  rocks  o'  their  hillsides 

Their  faces  are  dour. 
Oh,  "Th'  Campbells  are  Comin' 

Frae  corrie  an'  fell — 
What  a  thrill  to  their  slogan! 

These  "Ladies  from  Hell." 

As  they  charged  at  Culloden 

Like  fire  o'er  th'  brae, 
Their  brothers  are  charging 

In  Flanders  to-day. 
One  lessors  in  manners 

The  boche  has  learned  well: 
'Tis:  Make  way  for  the  ladies — 

"The  Ladies  from  Hell." 


THE  END 


555 


THE  COUNTRY  LIFE  PRESS 
GARDEN  CITY,   N.  Y. 


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